Focusing of Scanning Light Beams below the Diffraction Limit without Near-Field Spatial Control Using a Saturable Absorber and a Negative-Refraction Material

A. Husakou and J. Herrmann
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 013902 – Published 3 January 2006

Abstract

We show that a scanning light beam can be focused below the diffraction limit without the control of moving near-field elements using the combination of two main components: a light-controlled saturable absorber, which creates seed evanescent components from the beam, and a layer of negative-refraction material, which amplifies the evanescent waves. Focusing to spots with a FWHM in the range of 0.20.3λ is predicted. For slightly off-resonant input beams, an intensity-dependent phase shift leads to smaller spots.

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  • Received 9 August 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.013902

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. Husakou* and J. Herrmann

  • Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, Max-Born-Strasse 2a, D-12489 Germany

  • *Electronic address: gusakov@mbi-berlin.de
  • Electronic address: jherrman@mbi-berlin.de

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 1 — 13 January 2006

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