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

最近，John Pendry爵士的一篇关于通过使用左手介质（具有负介电常数和负磁导率的材料）创建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。这一新的分支研究在材料物理学、电磁学、光学、无线电工程和电子学的多学科领域中的发展涉及人工电磁多功能材料，其被设计成满足规定的电磁要求。与自然界中所能发现的相比，上级性质通常是“超材料”一词的基础。电磁超材料将在为未来电子器件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都是建立在基板和覆盖层上的，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，因为它们研究的主要目的是能够超越自然发生的物质和当前材料研究所带我们去的地方。通过将不同的微观元素结合到大规模设计中，人们不仅能够创造出具有全新特性的材料，而且还能够根据新技术的要求制造出具有所需特性的材料。特别是，新的电磁特性将允许人们以革命性的方式控制微波，毫米波和光学光。这就是拟订本提案的背景。它涵盖了使用超材料的亚波长成像的主题，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;更高容量的光学数据存储系统;更紧凑的集成光学电信解决方案。本项目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.