A University of Toronto researcher has developed a flat lens that doesn't respect the "normal" laws of nature and could significantly enhance the resolution of imaged objects. NewsFactor has the story.
The creation of an unusual flat lens may finally resolve a long-running controversy about the existence of materials that have metaphysical qualities -- so-called "metamaterials" -- that transcend the laws of nature.
The lens could lead to amplified antennas, smaller cell phones and increased data storage on CD-ROMs, claims University of Toronto electrical engineering professor George Eleftheriades in the March 24th issue of Applied Physics Letters.
"This is new physics," Eleftheriades told NewsFactor.
Here is the key feature of this new kind of lenses.
Normal glass lenses that focus light are curved -- either convex or concave. Light passing through a flat glass lens will diverge. Light passing through a flat lens made of metamaterials, however, will bend the 'wrong' way and focus.
A metamaterial lens "allows focusing almost two orders of magnitude higher than is possible with conventional lenses," explained Claudio Parazzoli, an associate technical fellow of the Boeing Company.
But what exactly are metamaterials? The University of California at San Diego gives the answer, on the Left-handed materials web page.
Electromagnetic metamaterials are artificially created materials that exhibit superior or unique electromagnetic properties than can be found in naturally occurring materials and composites.
Sci-Fi Today gives more explanations, in "Thru The Looking Glass With Lenses That "Break The Laws of Nature"."
Metamaterials were proposed in the 1968 and were immediately scorned because some physicists thought that if they existed, they would be a medium in which one could go faster than the speed of light. New calculations show that sorry, metamaterials aren't dilithium.
"These calculations are an important confirmation that the speed of light is not violated by negative refraction," John Pendry, a theorist at Imperial College in London who did much of the early work on negative-index materials, told Physics Web. "It is time to move on and start making use of these amazing new materials."
Will metamaterial lenses be used to engineer the next generation of electronic devices? I guess we'll have to wait for a while.
Sources: Mike Martin, NewsFactor Network , March 24, 2003; University of California at San Diego; "rickyjames", Sci-Fi Today, March 24, 2003
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