Metamaterials for subwavelength imaging at microwave, terahertz, infrared and optical frequencies

最近，约翰·彭德里爵士发表了一篇关于利用左手介质（同时具有负介电常数和磁导率的材料）制造出具有几乎不受限制的亚波长分辨率的完美透镜的可能性的论文，引发了对具有奇异和不寻常电磁特性的人工介质的研究热潮。这很可能是现代物理学一个新领域的诞生，现在被命名为超材料。在材料物理学、电磁学、光学、无线电工程和电子学等多学科领域中，这一新的研究分支的发展涉及满足规定电磁要求的人工电磁多功能材料。与自然界中可以找到的东西相比，优越的性能通常隐含在“超材料”一词中。电磁超材料将在为未来的电子设备和组件提供新功能和增强功能方面发挥关键作用，例如高速电路，多功能智能微型天线和孔径，高分辨率成像系统，智能皮肤等。毕竟，这些系统和其他系统是建立在基板和上基板上的，其电磁响应函数定义了系统的设计和性能。从本质上讲，超材料是未来的材料，因为研究它们的主要目的是能够超越自然存在的物质和现有材料的研究。通过将不同的微观元素结合到大规模的设计中，人们不仅能够创造出具有基本新特性的材料，还可以根据新技术的要求制造出其他具有需求特性的材料。特别是，新的电磁特性将使人们能够以革命性的方式控制微波、毫米波和光学。这就是提出本建议的背景。它涵盖了使用超材料的亚波长成像的主题，它可以在信息技术和生命科学的许多领域找到众多应用，例如：更好的成像系统；大容量光数据存储系统；更紧凑的集成光通信解决方案。本课题提出了构建左手介质和实现无左手介质亚波长成像的创新机会。

Recently, a paper by Sir John Pendry about the possibility of creating perfect lenses with nearly unrestricted sub-wavelength resolution by the use of the left-handed media (materials with both negative permittivity and permeability) initiated a boom in studies of the artificial media with the exotic and unusual electromagnetic properties. It is likely that this was the birth of a new area of modern physics, which is now named metamaterials. The development of this new branch of research in the multidisciplinary field of material physics, electromagnetics, optics, radio engineering, and electronics concerns artificial electromagnetic multi-functional materials engineered to satisfy the prescribed electromagnetic requirements. Superior properties as compared to what can be found in nature are often underlying in the term 'metamaterials'. Electromagnetic metamaterials will play a key role in providing new functionalities and enhancements to the future electronic devices and components, such as high-speed circuits, multifunctional smart miniature antennas and apertures, high-resolution imaging systems, smart skins, and so forth. After all, these and other systems are built on substrates and superstrates whose electromagnetic response functions define the design and performance of the systems. Metamaterials are, in essence, the materials of the future, since the main purpose for their study is to be able to go beyond where naturally occurring substances and current materials research have taken us. By combining different microscopic elements into large-scale designs, one will be able not only to create materials with fundamentally new properties but also to fabricate others that have properties on demand, as required by new technologies. In particular, new electromagnetic properties will allow one to control microwaves, millimetre waves, and optical light in revolutionary ways. This is the context in which the present proposal is framed. It covers the topic of sub-wavelength imaging using metamaterials which can find multitudinous applications in many areas of information technology and life science such as: better imaging systems; higher capacity optical data storage systems; more compact integrated optical telecom solutions. In the project the innovative opportunities to construct left-handed media and to achieve sub-wavelength imaging without left-handed media are proposed.