Complexity Digest 2005.17 - 17

25-Apr-2005

Applied Physics: How to Build a Superlens, Science Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: One of the most dramatic--and controversial --predictions to emerge from this activity was a speculation by Pendry that a thin negative-index film should function as a "superlens," providing image detail with a resolution beyond the diffraction limit to which all positive-index lenses are subject. (...) confirm the theoretical predictions of Veselago and Pendry. They show that a planar negative-index lens can indeed produce a sharp image by virtue of a new mechanism: evanescent wave refocusing.

Conventional positive-refractive index lenses require curved surfaces to bend the rays (...).