High effective refractive index materials for ultra-high resolution illumination nanoscopy

An apparatus, comprising:

• a high effective refractive index structure including one or more high effective refractive index materials disposed on a substrate, the high effective refractive index structure configured to respond to a light received at the high effective refractive index structure by at least generating one or more sub-diffraction limit illumination patterns for illuminating a specimen while one or more frames are captured of the illuminated specimen, wherein the one or more high effective refractive index materials exhibit an effective refractive index equal to or greater than 3 and include a hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) multilayer;
• a light source configured to output the light received at the high effective refractive index structure;
• and
• an image sensor configured to generate the one or more frames of the illuminated specimen.

A method, comprising:

• generating, by a high effective refractive index structure including one or more high effective refractive index materials disposed on a substrate, one or more sub-diffraction limit illumination patterns, the high effective refractive index structure generating the one or more sub-diffraction limit illumination patterns in response to a light received at the high effective refractive index structure, wherein the one or more high effective refractive index materials exhibit an effective refractive index equal to or greater than 3 and include a hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) multilayer;
• illuminating a specimen with the one or more sub-diffraction limit illumination patterns;
• and
• capturing one or more frames of the illuminated specimen.