Perfect image without metamaterials ... and a reprieve for silicon chipsSeptember 29, 2009Since 2000, John Pendry's work on metamaterials has been at the van guard of efforts to create a perfect image - images with perfect resolution that can stem from light being moved in odd directions to create, among other tricks of the light, the illusion of invisibility. One exciting development was Pendry's theoretically perfect work on negative refraction, which offered the possibility of lenses that could create images with resolution not possible with conventional lenses. But this proved problematic in practice as the negatively refracting materials so far produced did not live up to their potential - absorbing a certain amount of the light and spoiling the resolution of the perfect image. In a new research paper published today, Tuesday, 29 September, in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society) called 'Perfect imaging without negative refraction', Ulf Leonhardt, Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of St. Andrew's, has shown that there is another way to create the perfect image. It will be published at http://stacks.iop.org/NJP/11/093040. Inspired by James Clerk Maxwell's findings, first expounded in the 1850s, Leonhardt is reintroducing the idea of a 'fish-eye' lens; a lens that can work in any direction but had not, until now, been modeled to fully account for the wave-like properties of light. Professor Leonhardt said, "It is the waviness of light that limits the resolution of lenses. Apparently, nobody had tried to calculate the imaging of light waves in Maxwell's fish-eye. The new research proves that the fish-eye has unlimited resolution in principle, and, as it does not need negative refraction, it may also work in practice. "The theory was inspired by ideas for invisibility where light is bent around objects to make them disappear from view. Here the ideas behind invisibility are applied for perfect imaging." While the work is only theoretical at present, it will be exciting news to silicon chip manufacturers as the resolution limit of lenses limits the microchip technology needed for making ever faster computers. While this development will not overcome the problems posed by the physical limits of smaller and smaller chip circuitry, it will give chipmakers freedom to photograph ever smaller, and more compact, structures of billions of tiny transistors on silicon chips to meet the insatiable appetite for faster and smaller computers. Institute of Physics |
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| Related Metamaterials Current Events and Metamaterials News Articles Invisibility visualized: German team unveils new software for rendering cloaked objects Scientists and curiosity seekers who want to know what a partially or completely cloaked object would look like in real life can now get their wish -- virtually. Berkeley researchers create first hyperlens for sound waves Ultrasound and underwater sonar devices could "see" a big improvement thanks to development of the world's first acoustic hyperlens. Created by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the acoustic hyperlens provides an eightfold boost in the magnification power of sound-based imaging technologies. COES professor's 'metamaterials' research lands cover of international journal Dr. Dentcho Genov, an assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University and a Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI) Institute fellow, is featured on the cover of the most recent issue of Nature Physics, one of the most respected and prestigious physics journals in the world. A new cloaking method University of Utah mathematicians developed a new cloaking method, and it's unlikely to lead to invisibility cloaks like those used by Harry Potter or Romulan spaceships in "Star Trek." Instead, the new method someday might shield submarines from sonar, planes from radar, buildings from earthquakes, and oil rigs and coastal structures from tsunamis. Beyond the looking glass While the researchers can't promise delivery to a parallel universe or a school for wizards, books like Pullman's Dark Materials and JK Rowling's Harry Potter are steps closer to reality now that researchers in China have created the first tunable electromagnetic gateway. The guiding of light: A new metamaterial device steers beams along complex pathways Using a composite metamaterial to deliver a complex set of instructions to a beam of light, Boston College physicists have created a device to guide electromagnetic waves around objects such as the corner of a building or the profile of the eastern seaboard. Discovery at UAB brings us nearer to making the dream of invisibility true A group of researchers from the Department of Physics at UAB have designed a device, called a dc metamaterial, which makes objects invisible under certain light - very low frequency electromagnetic waves - by making the inside of the magnetic field zero but not altering the exterior field. New 'broadband' cloaking technology simple to manufacture Researchers have created a new type of invisibility cloak that is simpler than previous designs and works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before and possibly leading to practical applications in "transformation optics." Blurring the Line Between Magic and Science: Berkeley Researchers Create an 'Invisibility Cloak' The great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously noted the similarities between advanced technology and magic. This summer on the big screen, the young wizard Harry Potter will once again don his magic invisibility cloak and disappear. Scientists closer to making invisibility cloak a reality J.K. Rowling may not have realized just how close Harry Potter's invisibility cloak was to becoming a reality when she introduced it in the first book of her best-selling fictional series in 1998. Scientists, however, have made huge strides in the past few years in the rapidly developing field of cloaking. Ranked the number five breakthrough of the year by Science magazine in 2006, cloaking involves making an object invisible or undetectable to electromagnetic waves. More Metamaterials Current Events and Metamaterials News Articles |
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