Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 207403 (2002) [4 pages]

Left-Handed Materials Do Not Make a Perfect Lens

Abstract

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N. Garcia^1,* and M. Nieto-Vesperinas^2,†
¹Laboratorio de Fisica de sistemas Pequeños, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Serrano 144, Madrid 28006, Spain
²Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Campus de Cantoblanco, Madrid 28049, Spain

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Received 16 November 2001; published 3 May 2002

See accompanying Physics Focus

By means of an analysis on evanescent waves in left-handed materials (LHM), we show that within a slab of such a medium, sandwiched between two positive refraction media, there is amplification of evanescent waves in ideal lossless, dispersiveless media; however, contrary to previous claims, this is limited to a finite width of the slab so that it prevents their restoration and perfect focusing. We illustrate this by considering their coupling to propagating waves through a tunnel barrier containing a slab of LHM. Further, we show that the effect of absorption, necessarily present in such materials, may drastically change any evanescent amplifying wave into a decaying one.

URL:

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.207403

DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.207403

PACS:

78.20.Ci, 41.20.Jb, 42.25.-p, 42.30.-d

^*Email address: nicolas.garcia@fsp.csic.es

^†Corresponding author. Email address: mnieto@icmm.csic.es

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 207403 (2002) [4 pages]

Left-Handed Materials Do Not Make a Perfect Lens

See Also