The divergent physical properties of light and sound waves result in tradeoffs between resolution and penetration depth with respect to their imaging capabilities. An ideal imaging system should combine the strengths of optical and acoustic imaging. Here, we demonstrate that via the use of designed metal nanoparticle based plasmonic metasurfaces, we can enable photoacoustic imaging with resolution better than optical imaging and penetration depths as deep as acoustic imaging, without any destruction of media, and with reduced power requirements (via plasmonic focusing). Moreover, the application to photoacoustic structured illumination microscopy would lead to new avenues in miniaturized, on-chip super-resolution imaging.
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