Design, fabrication, and testing of double negative metamaterials

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.

The real part of the refractive index n(omega) of a nearly transparent and passive medium is usually taken to have only positive values. Through an analysis of a current source radiating into a 1D "left-handed" material (LHM)-where the permittivity and permeability are simultaneously less than zero-we determine the analytic structure of n(omega), demonstrating frequency regions where the sign of Re[n(omega)] must, in fact, be negative. The regime of negative index, made relevant by a recent demonstration of an effective LHM, leads to unusual electromagnetic wave propagation and merits further exploration.