Analysis of Ag-superlens performances using

spatial convolution formulation

Indra Karnadi, Alexander A. Iskandar,* and May-On Tjia
Physics of Magnetism and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences,
Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
*Corresponding author: iskandar@.itb.ac.id
Received October 12, 2009; accepted December 2, 2009;
posted December 14, 2009 (Doc. ID 118413); published January 25, 2010
It is shown that the spatial convolution formulation offers the advantage for direct analysis in the real space
of the effects of system-object feature mismatches on the resulting image quality. Imaging systems of various
layered Ag-poly(methyl methacrylate) congurations and a variety of square-slit objects were considered for
the analysis. The results reveal how those feature mismatches affect the image quality and clarify the previ-
ously suggested possible advantage of using a layered Ag superlens over a single-Ag slab of the same total
thickness. Those mismatches may eventually be quantied to allow the optimization of a superlens appropri-
ate for imaging a certain object. 2010 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 110.4235, 110.5220, 310.6628, 050.6624, 260.3910.
1. INTRODUCTION
The possibility of using a silver slab to perform subwave-
length imaging was rst proposed by Pendry in 2000 [1],
which was theoretically shown to approach asymptoti-
cally the perfect lensing performance achieved by using a
negative index medium (metamaterial of negative refrac-
tive index). Operating with near-eld optical wave in a
deeply subwavelength structure, the much desired sub-
wavelength resolution can also be attained by a so-called
superlens imaging system having a negative permittivity
layer instead of a material with a negative refractive in-
dex [1]. This system offers a realistic implementation of
subwavelength imaging even at the visible frequencies.
This new found phenomenon was attributed to the role of
the silver lens in transmitting and amplifying a large
range of wave components via the resonant coupling of
the evanescent wave with the surface plasmon polariton
and the cross coupling between the surface plasmons on
opposite sides of the Ag layer. Since then, a number of
studies on single-silver-layer imaging system have been
carried out for various layer congurations and object ge-
ometries. Fang et al. [2] and Melville and Blaikie [3] ex-
perimentally demonstrated the realization of single-
silver-slab superlens imaging with a subwavelength
resolution, and went on to show experimentally that the
subwavelength imaging system does not need to fulll the
strict Veselagos criteria d
i
d
o
=2d
lens
[4].
To improve the image resolution, Ramakrishna [5] pro-
posed the extension of the single-silver-slab superlens to a
multilayer silver-dielectric system having the same total
thickness of the silver layers in the single-slab system.
This work was subsequently extended by Wood et al. [6] to
a layered metal-dielectric system with one of the dielec-
tric layers having an opposite sign of permittivity to the
other dielectric layers. Going beyond the effective index
approximation, the authors showed the possibility of real-
izing directed subwavelength imaging featuring
wavelength-tuned positioning of the image which prom-
ises potential application to multiplexed recording. The
comparisons of performances delivered by the single and
multilayer silver systems for lithographic application
were subsequently conducted in a series of experimental
and numerical studies [79]. It was conrmed that in-
creasing the number of layers with correspondingly re-
duced silver layer thicknesses did improve the system
transfer function at the higher frequency range and
thereby enhanced the image resolution. Meanwhile the
possibility of producing a transfer function of a more ex-
tended atness by introducing graded thickness in the
multi-silver-layers was also investigated with some prom-
ising results [8]. Most recently, a formulation of index-
mismatch tuning by wavelength variation was also pro-
posed for the improvement of the imaging performance of
a single-Ag layer [10], although further scrutiny of the re-
ported result is required [11].
It must be stressed that most of the previous numerical
analyses reported so far were performed on the basis of
the system transfer function Tk
x
in the spatial frequency
domain. Ideally, a real-valued and mostly at transfer
function (T=1 in the case of perfect lens) is expected to
yield an excellent image of the object with a subwave-
length resolution. Such a near ideal transfer function is
known to be associated with a very thin silver superlens.
In the more realistic systems most widely considered so
far, with a Ag layer thickness of about 40 nm in a single-
Ag-layer system and about 1020 nm in the multilayer
systems, the transfer functions generally exhibit a non-
monotonous variations in the wave number space marked
by diminishing values at higher frequencies. In this case
the transfer function does not offer a useful and practical
basis for the direct analysis of its correlation with the im-
age quality or delity. Specically, it is difcult to relate
the transfer function characteristics with the sizes and
extents of sidelobes appearing in the resulting images of
268 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/ Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010 Karnadi et al.
1084-7529/10/020268-8/$15.00 2010 Optical Society of America
objects with varying parameters such as the width of a
slit, the number of periodic slits, and the pitch between
adjacent slits. Although the resulting image characteris-
tics have been known to depend also on the object geom-
etry, its connection with the superlens characteristics has
yet to be seriously addressed. This is further complicated
by the difculty in evaluating the imaging delity of a su-
perlens in terms of the transfer function [9].
We proposed in this work the use of the transmission
function which is the spatial Fourier transform of the
transfer function to relate the image function to the object
function by its convolution with the transmission func-
tion. An analytical scheme is proposed for the formulation
of the quantitative evaluation of the image quality which
can be further adapted to different conditions of applica-
tion. Numerical results for the transmission function of
single and multilayer silver superlens systems are com-
puted and applied to the study of image produced by ob-
jects of a variety of geometries. The qualities of the result-
ing images are analyzed in terms of some matching
features between the geometrical object prole and the
transmission function characteristics of the associated
imaging system. It is shown that certain matching fea-
tures between the two functions signicantly affect the
resulting image quality.
2. BASIS FORMULATION
We focus in this work on the imaging systems consisting
of unit cells with a symmetric structure composed of a sil-
ver layer sandwiched between two identical layers of
poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as depicted in Fig. 1.
We further restrict our following formulation to the case
of p-polarized wave.
The transfer function of the imaging system commonly
employed in previous works is dened as the ratio of elec-
tric elds on the image plane with respect to that on the
object plane, expressed in the spatial frequency domain
by the following simple equation:
Tk
x
=
E
i
k
x

E
o
k
x

, E
i
k
x
= Tk
x
E
o
k
x
, 1
which is also a function of the system parameters d
1
, d
2
,
and N denoted in Fig. 1. Using the standard matrix trans-
fer method [12] this function can be simply expressed in
terms of the total transfer matrix element M
11
according
to the formula Tk
x
, d
1
, d
2
, N =M
11

1
. The total transfer
matrix M is determined in terms of the identical single-
cell transfer matrix m by M=m
N
, where m is in turn
given by

m
11
m
12
m
21
m
22

= P
1
D
1
1
D
2
P
2
D
2
1
D
1
P
1
, 2
with P and D denoting the propagation and dynamical
matrices satisfying the boundary condition for p-polarized
wave, which are given, respectively, by
P
j
=

exp ik
zj
d 0
0 expik
zj
d

, D
j
=

1 1
k
zj
/
j
k
zj
/
j

.
3
The index j refers to the dielectric (PMMA) j =1 and sil-
ver j =2 layers.
Using Eq. (1), the image is simply determined by
the inverse Fourier transform of E
i
k
x
: E
i
x
=Tk
x
E
o
k
x
expik
x
xdk
x
. This formulation has been
adopted in most previous works which have so far missed
the important issue of unraveling the detailed and com-
plicated geometrical relation between the object and the
imaging system which is largely concealed in the appar-
ent simplicity of Eq. (1), and yet unquestionably affects
the resulting image quality. By going one step further, we
can explicitly expose the relation between the spatial eld
distributions of the image and the object by simply per-
forming the inverse Fourier transform of E
o
k
x
into the
inverse Fourier transform of E
i
k
x
written above. This re-
sults in the integral expression of the form
E
i
x =

E
o
xTx x,d
1
,d
2
,Ndx, 4
where T is the transmission function given by
Tx x,d
1
,d
2
,N =
1
2

Tk
x
,d
1
,d
2
,N
expik
x
x xdk
x
. 5
Equation (4) expresses the image eld as the spatial con-
volution of the object eld with the so-called transmission
function. It is amply clear from this expression that the
resulting image depends very much on the appropriate
transmission or optical response to different parts of the
object. Employing Eq. (5), a more direct and sensible es-
timate of the image eld delity can be introduced effec-
tively by the following integral:
f =

Tx xE
o
xdx E
o
x

dx

E
o
xdx

, 6
where E
o
x =1 for x lying within a slit and E
o
x =0 for x
lying between the adjacent slits, while the integrals are to
be carried out over the entire range of x, , with f
=1 representing 100% delity. This is to be compared
Fig. 1. (Color online) Basic layer conguration of a unit cell in a
periodic layered metal-dielectric system and notations of the sys-
tem parameters
Karnadi et al. Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010/ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 269
with the formulation, particularly Eqs. (7)(9) in [9] cited
earlier. In fact, Eq. (7) in [9] can be recast into the follow-
ing form:
f =

Tx x x xE
o
xdx

dx

E
o
xdx

, 7
which clearly shows that a perfect lensing system should
simply satisfy the simple condition of Txx =xx or
T=1, leading to f =1. For less than ideal cases, Txx is
expected to deviate from the Dirac delta. Nonetheless, Eq.
(6) may still provide the basic mathematical framework
for formulating the quantitative evaluation of the result-
ing imaging quality, once the relevant quantities charac-
terizing the desired quality have been identied. In the
case of photo-lithography application, for instance, one is
concerned with the intensity distribution over the range
covered by the entire object. For this case, Eq. (6) may be
appropriately replaced with the following error gure:
H=

Tx xE
o
xdx

2
E
o

xE
o
x

dx

E
o

xE
o
xdx

,
8
where both integrals are calculated only over the extent of
the entire object of interest. Further, depending on the
photo-sensitivity and optical damage threshold of the
photo-resist, one may also dene for an object of multiple
rectangular slits the appropriate measure of image con-
trast or visibility using the similar formulation. However,
without specic reference to the photo-resist material em-
ployed (hence the associated photo-sensitivity and optical
damage threshold) and the light source available, we
choose to rely on the direct visual inspection for the study
and analysis of the overall correlations between E
o
x
and Txx responsible for a good image represented by
E
i
x
2
.
3. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS FOR SINGLE-
SILVER SLAB
In the case of perfect imaging, the image should be an ex-
act replica of the object, and the transfer function in Eq.
(1) should clearly be equal to 1. In a realistic system em-
ploying a silver lens with an intrinsic dissipative prop-
erty, this ideal condition can never be fullled. To be spe-
cic, let us briey refer to the case of a single-silver slab of
thickness d
2
and dielectric constant
2
, sandwiched be-
tween identical dielectric layers of thickness d
1
and di-
electric constant
1
. The associated transfer function can
be expressed generally by
Tk
x
,d
1
,d
2
,N =
4
1

2
k
z1
k
z2
exp2ik
z1
d
1

2
k
z1
+
1
k
z2
exp ik
z2
d
2

2
k
z1

1
k
z2
expik
z2
d
2

. 9
This complicated expression can never be equal to 1 un-
less the highly unusual condition proposed by Pendry [1]
is exactly met. In general, the complex relation (9) does
not readily lend itself to an analysis for identifying the
system parameters giving the desired transfer function,
neither does it offer a direct and detailed explanation for
the deviation of the eld or intensity distribution of the
image from those of the object.
As explained earlier, we have chosen in this study to
analyze the performance of the imaging system on the ba-
sis of its transmission function dened by Eq. (5). We
shall discuss the image qualities of two-slit objects pro-
duced by a single-Ag-layer superlens of different Ag-slab
thicknesses, since this has become a standard case ad-
dressed in most earlier studies. It is understood from Eq.
(4) that the ideal transmission function in Eq. (5) should
be real and equal to a Dirac delta. Indeed, for the case of
a 5 nm Ag slab sandwiched by 2.5 nm PMMA layers (sat-
isfying the Veselago condition), the real part of T closely
resembles the Dirac delta and dominates over the rela-
tively insignicant imaginary part as shown in Figs. 2(a)
and 2(b). Clearly, the resulting image shown in Fig. 2(c)
exhibits the expected well known excellent quality as a
result of the near perfect one-to-one mapping operation of
the Dirac delta-like transmission function. Similar image
qualities are also found for varied object geometry. On the
other hand, in the case of a 40 nm silver superlens with
d
1
=20 nm and realistic material permittivity (generally
non-vanishing extinction coefcient), specically
2
=2.4012+i0.2488,
1
=2.3013+i0.0014 [2], the transmis-
sion function consists of comparable real and imaginary
parts with extended oscillations beyond the conne of the
object with incommensurate phase between the real and
imaginary components observed in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b),
which results in a badly distorted image for the same ob-
ject as displayed in Fig. 3(c). This result is comparable
with the result reported in [9]. One further observes from
Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) that this is closely related to the broad
proles of both the real and imaginary parts of the T func-
tion, which extend over the width of the slit as well as the
inter-slit interval. Apparently this large geometrical mis-
match may in principle introduce unwanted intensity
contributions from the irrelevant parts of the object to the
image plane. However, in this special case, it is primarily
270 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/ Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010 Karnadi et al.
responsible for the small partial contributions from the
slits and resulting in the greatly suppressed transmitted
intensity at the slit image.
Based on the above observation, it is then tempting to
see if widening the slit will help to improve the result.
Figures 4(a)4(c) show the calculated result for the object
with the same pitch p but with an enlarged width of w
=60 nm. One observes that, for this object, the image in-
tensity is visibly enhanced with the improved resolution.
Fig. 2. (Color online) Transmission function Txx of a super-
lens with 5 nm single-Ag layer and two 2.5 nm PMMAs plotted
for x at the middle of (a) a slit, (b) inter-slit interval, and (c) the
resulting image (dashed-dotted line) and separate contributions
of the real (dashed line) and imaginary (solid line) parts for an
object with w=20 nm and p=80 nm.
Fig. 3. (Color online) Transmission function Txx of a super-
lens with 40 nm single-Ag layer and two 20 nm PMMAs plotted
for x at the middle of (a) a slit, (b) inter-slit interval, and (c) the
resulting image (dashed-dotted line) and separate contributions
of the real (dashed line) and imaginary (solid line) parts for the
same object of Fig. 2.
Karnadi et al. Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010/ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 271
This is apparently related to a better lling of the slit by
the dominant imaginary part of the T function as seen in
Fig. 4(a).
It is also clear that the effective suppression of inten-
sity in between the slits is due to the fortuitous self-
canceling contributions of the separate real and imagi-
nary parts from the two slits. Finally, in order to further
enhance the intensity of the slit images, the pitch be-
tween the slits is increased in order to reduce the cancel-
lation effects of the dominant imaginary contributions
Fig. 5. (Color online) The same Txx function as in Fig. 4
plotted with x xed at the middle of (a) a slit, (b) inter-slit inter-
val, and (c) the resulting image (dashed-dotted line) including
the contributions of both the real (dashed line) and imaginary
(solid line) parts of a two-slit object of the same w as in Fig. 4
with p=100 nm.
Fig. 4. (Color online) The same Txx function as in Fig. 3
plotted with x xed at the middle of (a) a slit, (b) inter-slit inter-
val, and (c) the resulting image (dashed-dotted line) including
the contributions of both the real (dashed line) and imaginary
(solid line) parts of a two-slit object of the same p but different w
=60 nm.
272 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/ Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010 Karnadi et al.
from the neighboring slits as shown in Figs. 5(a) and 5(b),
and their comparison with Figs. 4(a) and 4(b). The result
indeed displays the desired intensity enhancement, al-
though this is achieved at the cost of increased intensity
in between due to the unwanted contributions caused by
the relatively broad T function prole (geometrical mis-
match) mentioned earlier. Nevertheless the contrast and
the resolution do not differ greatly. For photo-lithographic
application, the choice between the two depends on the
photo-sensitivity and the optical damage threshold of the
photo-resist employed. It may also depend on the avail-
able power of light source or the possible power saving
consideration. The upshot of the analysis is that for a cer-
tain superlens the resulting image characteristics are
largely determined by some matching features between T
and object proles. An exception to this is of course the
case of a superlens with a very sharp and dominant single
component (real/imaginary) T prole.
As a last note, we show that the image improvement
may also be attained by changing the PMMA thickness as
presented in Figs. 6(a) and 6(b) for the same object. While
case (b) shows a lower image contrast, it may still be more
favorable to case (a) for a certain photo-lithographic con-
dition. This example attest to a previous suggestion that
the ideal condition of 2d
1
=d
2
is not a necessity for the
better imaging performance for a certain object when
working with the more realistic superlens system for
lithographic application.
Fig. 6. (Color online) Images of the same objects with w
=40 nm, p=80 nm obtained by the superlens system with (a) d
1
=20 nm, d
2
=40 nm and (b) d
1
=15 nm, d
2
=40 nm 2d
1
.
Fig. 7. (Color online) The real and imaginary parts of Txx
function calculated for a superlens of four unit cells with d
1
=5 nm, d
2
=10 nm which is plotted with x at the middle of (a) the
slit, (b) the pitch, and (c) the resulting image (dashed-dotted line)
including the additive contributions of both the real (dashed line)
and imaginary (solid line) parts of a two-slit object of the same w
and p as in Fig. 3.
Karnadi et al. Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010/ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 273
4. IMAGING BY MULTILAYER Ag-PMMA
SUPERLENS SYSTEMS
As mentioned earlier, the layered superlens system hav-
ing the same total Ag layer thickness as that in a single-
Ag-layer system was suggested to offer a better imaging
performance than that of the single-Ag slab [5]. It is the
purpose of the following study to examine this suggestion
for different layer congurations in the superlens systems
and different object geometries. The cases considered in
the following are focused on the two-slit objects with vari-
ous geometries.
It is found that reducing the Ag-layer thickness and in-
creasing accordingly the number of layers with the same
total dimension of the system may indeed enhance the
better system performance for certain objects as sug-
gested in [5]. Figure 7(c) describes the pronounced im-
provement of the image quality compared to the result
presented in Fig. 3(c) for the same object, but using a sys-
tem consisting of a 410 nm Ag layer with correspond-
ingly reduced PMMA layer thickness d
1
=5 nm. The
comparisons of the T function and the object slit proles
given in Figs. 7(a) and 7(b) clearly show, rstly, the con-
siderably higher and shaper central prole of the domi-
nant real part of T. Secondly, the large central prole of
ReT almost fully lls the slit, while both parts of T only
give relatively small contributions to the superposed in-
Fig. 8. (Color online) Comparison of images obtained for the
same object of (a) 140 nm Ag-slab and (b) 220 nm Ag-slab
superlenses.
Fig. 9. (Color online) The real and imaginary parts of Txx
function calculated for a superlens of four unit cells with d
1
=5 nm, d
2
=10 nm which is plotted with x at the middle of (a) the
slit, (b) the pitch, and (c) the resulting image (dashed-dotted line)
including the additive contributions of both the real (dashed line)
and imaginary (solid line) parts of a two-slit object with w
=30 nm and p=60 nm.
274 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/ Vol. 27, No. 2/ February 2010 Karnadi et al.
tensity in the interval between the two slits on the image
plane. One further notes in this case that it is the real
part of T that dominates over its imaginary part. All these
features are in clear contrast to the case presented in Fig.
3 where both the real and imaginary parts also have con-
siderably smaller maximum values compared to the cur-
rent case. These readily explain the improved image qual-
ity by the system with a layered Ag lens. Thus, the
multilayered system offers an alternative T prole which
may better t a certain object prole. A further conrma-
tion of this result is provided in Fig. 8 for a different ob-
ject of p=120 nm, w=20 nm imaged by 40 nm single-Ag-
slab and 220 nm double-Ag-slab systems as presented,
respectively, in Figs. 8(a) and 8(b).
It must be re-emphasized, however, that the degree of
quality improvement attained by the layered Ag-PMMA
systems illustrated in the above gures depends also on
the object to be imaged. Figure 9(c) shows the image ob-
tained from another object of p=60 nm and w=30 nm by
the same lens system in Fig. 7. The visibly lower image
quality clearly attests to the importance of matching fea-
tures between T and E
o
as shown in Figs. 9(a) and 9(b)
and described in the earlier discussions.
5. CONCLUSION
We have demonstrated in this work the advantage of em-
ploying the spatial convolution method for the study and
numerical analysis of the imaging performance of Ag-slab
superlens systems, complementary to the more commonly
adopted k-space formulation. Central to the merits of this
alternative approach is the possibility it offers in reveal-
ing the effects on the image quality exerted by certain
matching features between the object prole and the
transmission window characteristics of the imaging sys-
tem directly in the real space. The performances of spe-
cic superlens systems of various layer congurations ap-
plied to a variety of square-slit objects are analyzed and
discussed. It is shown that, except for the case of a very
narrow (5 nm) single-slab Ag superlens having a domi-
nant real part resembling the Dirac delta, the transmis-
sion functions generally consist of comparable real and
imaginary components with extended ringing tails and
featuring a certain incommensurate phase relation be-
tween the two components, which further exhibits a vis-
ible geometrical mismatch with the object prole. It is
demonstrated that a good image quality is generally pro-
duced by a system having the required matching features
between its transmission function and the object prole.
While the result presented here is short of a fully quanti-
tative nature, it does reveal the important underlying fac-
tors affecting the imaging result, and it further suggests
the desirability to further develop the appropriate mea-
sures for the relevant features mentioned above, which
can then be optimized for the design of the appropriate
imaging system for a chosen object.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is supported by Hibah Kompetensi (con-
tract no. 040/HIKOM/DP2M/2008) from DP2M DIKTI,
Ministry of National Education of Indonesia.
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