The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 22, 2008
Filed:
Feb. 18, 2005
Igor I. Smolyaninov, Columbia, MD (US);
Christopher C. Davis, Bowie, MD (US);
Igor I. Smolyaninov, Columbia, MD (US);
Christopher C. Davis, Bowie, MD (US);
The University of Maryland, Riverdale, MD (US);
Abstract
A far-field optical microscope capable of reaching nanometer-scale resolution using the in-plane image magnification by surface plasmon polaritons is presented. The microscope utilizes a microscopy technique based on the optical properties of a metal-dielectric interface that may, in principle, provide extremely large values of the effective refractive index nup to 10-10as seen by the surface plasmons. Thus, the theoretical diffraction limit on resolution becomes λ/2n, and falls into the nanometer-scale range. The experimental realization of the microscope has demonstrated the optical resolution better than 50 nm for 502 nm illumination wavelength.