Numerical study of hyperlenses for three-dimensional imaging and lithography.

The development of nanostructured metamaterials and the ability to engineer material dispersion has led to impressive advances in the diverse field of nanophotonics. Of interest to many is the enhanced ability to control, illuminate, and image with light on subwavelength scales. In this letter, we numerically demonstrate a hyperlens with unprecedented radial-resolution at 5 nm scale for both imaging and lithography applications. Both processes are shown to have accuracy that surpasses the Abbe diffraction limit in the radial direction, which has potential applications for 3D imaging and lithography. Design optimization is discussed with regards to several important hyperlens parameters.