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JOURNAL OF SYNTHETIC CRYSTALS ›› 2021, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (7): 1200-1221.

Special Issue: 人工光/声微结构材料

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Planar Diffractive Lenses with Artificial Micro/Nano-Structures

HE Jun1, HUANG Kun1, ZHUANG Jicheng2   

  1. 1. Department of Optics and Optical Engineering, School of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China;
    2. Huangshan Jinggong Gravure Cylinder Co., Ltd., Huangshan 245900, China
  • Received:2021-04-20 Online:2021-07-15 Published:2021-08-16

Abstract: Traditional objective lenses based on the refraction of light in modern microscopy are restricted by Rayleigh diffraction limit, and its resolution is insufficient in various applications such as biological imaging, materials science and nanolithography. The existing methods to overcome this limit can be categorized into near-field (e.g., scanning near-field optical microscopy, superlens and microsphere lens) and far-field (e.g., stimulated emission depletion microscopy, photoactivated localization microscopy and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) approaches. However, the former operates in the challenging near-field mode using the nanoprobe to scatter the evanescent wave existing in a wavelength range of the object surface, and the latter have a selective dependence on fluorescent specimen that needs labeling in advance, which might damage the sample. Recently, through manipulating the diffraction of light with artificial micro/nano structure such as zone plate, photon-sieve and gradient metasurfaces, some miniaturized and planar lenses have been reported with intriguing functionalities such as ultrahigh numerical aperture, large depth of focus, and sub-diffraction-limit focusing at far field, thereby allowing a viable solution for the label-free super-resolution imaging. Here, recent advances in planar diffractive lenses (PDLs) are reviewed from a united theoretical account on diffraction-based focusing optics, and the underlying physics of nanofocusing via controlling interference of light is revealed. Design principle, optical performance of PDLs and their dependence on the micro-/nano-structures and materials will be presented. Optical aberration such as off-axis and chromatic aberration is introduced together with consistent efforts for aberration correction. Furthermore, a detailed tutorial about applying these planar lenses integrated in confocal scanning microscopy for nanoimaging is provided, meanwhile the applications in nanolithography and photoelectron spectrometer is introduced. Finally, the conclusion and outlook regarding future development toward practical applications is presented.

Key words: planar diffractive lens, artificial micro/nano-structure, far-field superreslution imaging, optical aberration, subdiffraction-limit focusing

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