Negative Refraction Makes a Perfect Lens

✍ Scribed by Pendry, J. B.

• Book ID: 111679522
• Publisher: The American Physical Society
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 75 KB
• Volume: 85
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.85.3966

✦ Synopsis

With a conventional lens sharpness of the image is always limited by the wavelength of light. An unconventional alternative to a lens, a slab of negative refractive index material, has the power to focus all Fourier components of a 2D image, even those that do not propagate in a radiative manner. Such "superlenses" can be realized in the microwave band with current technology. Our simulations show that a version of the lens operating at the frequency of visible light can be realized in the form of a thin slab of silver. This optical version resolves objects only a few nanometers across.