High resolution multispectral imaging with plasmon lensing

It is desirable to make high resolution imagers that simultaneously acquire multispectral information from the same spatial locations; doing so enables a number of target detection and tracking applications. Currently, image resolution is limited by the pixel pitch which cannot be reduced below optical diffraction and carrier diffusion limited values, and by the need to have different pixels respond to different wavelengths. Other approaches are either exponentially more expensive (e.g. making larger imagers), or impractical to implement (e.g. stacking pixels that respond to different wavelengths). Thus, a new technology is required wherein the pixel size can be reduced to below the limits set forth by diffusion and diffraction, and wherein each pixel can simultaneously collect information from multiple spectral bands. In this proposal, we will use the multispectral plasmon lensing to that end. During Phase I, we will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed device with finite different time domain (FDTD) and finite difference Frequency domain (FDFD) simulations and with experimental demonstrations of the proposed multispectral plasmon lensing.