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A micro-iridescent focus generated from a microsphere on a reflective nanograting

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Abstract

Nanoscale high-intensity illuminations can be produced by dielectric microspheres, which are used for super-resolution imaging and optical nonlinear enhancement. Herein, a microscale chromatic dispersion assisted of a microsphere is experimentally presented. We find that a micro-iridescent focus can be generated from a microsphere put on a reflective nanograting under an oblique white-light illumination. The size of the micro-iridescent focus is smaller than the diameter of the microsphere, and the long wavelengths of light contributing to the micro-iridescent focus are distributed farther away from the microsphere. Furthermore, a curved-iridescent focus can also be obtained. Finally, it shows that the direction of the micro-iridescent focus is perpendicular to that of the reflective nanograting and the role of oblique illumination in experiments is discussed numerically. Our works present that a microsphere on a reflective nanograting can produce a microscale chromatic dispersion. This novel structure may have potential applications in the miniaturization of optical spectrometers.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Research Program of Huai'an (No. HAB202153), National Natural Science Foundation of China (61974143) and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020223).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Faculty of Mechanical and Material Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huai’an, 223003, China

    Song Zhou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    Youzhou Shi

  3. State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130033, China

    Youzhou Shi & Wenchao Zhou

  4. Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Kaiwei Li

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  1. Song Zhou
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  2. Youzhou Shi
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Correspondence to Song Zhou or Wenchao Zhou.

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Zhou, S., Shi, Y., Li, K. et al. A micro-iridescent focus generated from a microsphere on a reflective nanograting. Appl. Phys. A 128, 598 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-022-05744-1

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