When light passes through an opening smaller than half its wavelength, it tends to spread out or 'diffract' — a feature that is problematic to researchers developing ever-smaller photonic chips. A tiny device designed by Xiang Zhang's group at the University of California, Berkeley, has overcome this diffraction limit.
The device consists of a specially designed semiconductor strip suspended above a metal surface, with a thin gap in between. In this gap, light is converted to an electron wave that can beat the diffraction limit. The electron wave then re-emits the light at the far end of the strip. This gap allows infrared light to travel at 20 times its wavelength, and visible light at 10 times its wavelength.
The team believes that the device could allow optics to be integrated into nanoelectronic devices.
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Light threaded through tiny gap. Nature 474, 130–131 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/474130e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/474130e
