Michael Berger over at Nanowerk is reporting about the efforts of Japanese scientists at Osaka University and the Nanophotonics Laboratory at RIKEN Institute to develop a light microscope that uses silver nanorods to deliver magnifications of structures that are far below the spatial light resolution limit.
In work that gives rise to a new concept of a lens for optical imaging, scientists in Japan have proposed a lens made of silver nanorods, rather than a curved glass surface. This metallic nanolens is capable of manipulating light in such a way that an optical image of nanoscale objects can be obtained in the visible range.
“We have demonstrated that our nanolens can transfer color images of nanoscale objects over distances of at least micrometer scale with a sufficient amount of magnification for far-field observation” Dr. Prabhat Verma tells Nanowerk. “We believe that, in principle, the image can be transferred over even longer distances without any significant loss. The proposed nanolens could potentially be a strong imaging tool, for example, for observing individual viruses and other nano-entities in the far field.”
To learn about this technology idea, head on to the article at Nanowerk: Nanolens makes color imaging of nano objects possible…
Abstract: Subwavelength colour imaging with a metallic nanolens Nature Photonics doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.103