Abstract
The most fascinating images and patterns emerge when light diffracts from minute structures [1]. Even the image of an otherwise featureless hole produces enthralling ripples that spread out to invest space and form what is known as an Airy pattern. It is a basic fact that diffraction becomes dominant when the size of the feature becomes micrometric, and the transmitted wave has an angular spread Δθ that depends on the size of the aperture d measured in units of the optical wavelength λ, i.e., Δθ ≃ λ/d. From a practical perspective, diffraction represents a major obstacle to imaging of finer details, and a great research effort is continuously exerted to overcome it. In fact, diffraction spreads the optical wave and blurs the spatial information encoded in the optical beam. Consider an image composed of separate pixels of characteristic size d and spacing l.
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Acknowledgments
This contribution is based on work carried out with Prof. Aharon J. Agranat of the Applied Physics Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and with Elisa Spinozzi, now at the University of Rome La Sapienza. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR) through the “Futuro in Ricerca” FIRB-grant PHOCOS—RBFR08E7VA, and from the European Research Council under the European Community’s SeventhFramework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 201766. Partial funding was received through the SMARTCONFOCAL project of the Regione Lazio.
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DelRe, E., Conti, C. (2012). Scale-Free optics. In: Chen, Z., Morandotti, R. (eds) Nonlinear Photonics and Novel Optical Phenomena. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 170. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3538-9_8
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