Emitting and negatively-refractive focusing apparatus, methods, and systems

• US 20100033833A1
• Filed: 10/21/2008
• Published: 02/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Searete LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Weaver, Thomas A., Smith, David R., Pendry, John Brian, Tegreene, Clarence T., Jung, Edward K.Y., Whitmer, Charles, Wood, Lowell L. JR., Hyde, Roderick A., Schurig, David, Bowers, Jeffrey A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,817,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/642
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/00 Simple or compound lenses

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, and systems provide emitting and negatively-refractive focusing of electromagnetic energy. In some approaches the negatively-refractive focusing includes negatively-refractive focusing from an interior field region with an axial magnification substantially greaters than one. In some approaches the negatively-refractive focusing includes negatively-refractive focusing with a transformation medium, where the transformation medium may include an artificially-structured material such as a metamaterial.

Claims

1-122. -122. (canceled)

123. A method, comprising:

spatially contracting an electromagnetic wave along a contraction direction; and

negatively refracting the contracted electromagnetic wave at a surface region, the surface region defining a surface normal direction corresponding to the contraction direction.

124. The method of claim 123, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a scale factor less than one.

125. The method of claim 123, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a uniform scale factor.

126. The method of claim 123, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a non-uniform scale factor.

127. The method of claim 123, wherein the electromagnetic wave is a polarized electromagnetic wave.

128. The method of claim 127, wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TE-polarized electromagnetic wave.

129. The method of claim 127, wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TM-polarized electromagnetic wave.

130. The method of claim 123, wherein the electromagnetic wave is an unpolarized electromagnetic wave.

131. The method of claim 123, wherein the electromagnetic wave is at a first frequency.

132. The method of claim 131, where the first frequency is an optical frequency.

133. The method of claim 132, wherein the optical frequency corresponds to a visible wavelength.

134. The method of claim 132, wherein the optical frequency corresponds to an infrared wavelength.

135. The method of claim 131, wherein the first frequency is a radio frequency.

136. The method of claim 135, wherein the radio frequency is a microwave frequency.

137. The method of claim 131, wherein the first frequency is a millimeter-wave frequency.

138. The method of claim 131, wherein the first frequency is a submillimeter-wave frequency.

139. The method of claim 123, wherein the spatially contracting includes:

spatially contracting a first component of the electromagnetic wave at a first frequency along the contraction direction; and

spatially contracting a second component of the electromagnetic wave at a second frequency along the contraction direction.

140. The method of claim 139, wherein:

the spatially contracting of the first component is spatially contracting of the first component with a first scale factor less than one; and

the spatially contracting of the second component is spatially contracting of the second component with a second scale factor less than one.

141. The method of claim 140, wherein the first scale factor is different than the second scale factor.

142. The method of claim 123, wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide a field region for the electromagnetic wave.

143. The method of claim 142, wherein the field region defines an axial magnification along the contraction direction, the axial magnification inversely corresponding to a scale factor of the spatially contracting.

144. The method of claim 142, further comprising:

emitting the electromagnetic wave at one or more locations within the field region.

145. The method of claim 144, wherein the emitting includes emitting with at least one antenna.

146. The method of claim 144, wherein the emitting includes luminescent emitting.

147. The method of claim 144, wherein the emitting includes incandescent emitting.

148. The method of claim 144, wherein the one or more locations is a plurality of locations.

149. The method of claim 148, wherein the plurality of locations is at least partially distributed along the contraction direction.

150. The method of claim 148, wherein the emitting includes emitting with a plurality of antennas.

151. The method of claim 150, wherein the plurality of antennas composes an antenna phased array.

152. The method of claim 123, wherein the negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting.

153. The method of claim 152, wherein the substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting by wave-impedance matching.

154. The method of claim 123, wherein the surface region is a surface region of an electromagnetic medium, and the spatially contracting is spatially contracting by propagating the electromagnetic wave in the electromagnetic medium.

155. The method of claim 154, wherein the electromagnetic medium includes a negative refractive index medium.

156. The method of claim 154, wherein the electromagnetic medium is a transformation medium.

157. The method of claim 156, wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate contraction, the axial coordinate contraction corresponding to the spatially contracting.

158. The method of claim 156, wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate inversion, the axial coordinate inversion corresponding to the negatively refracting.

159. The method of claim 154, wherein the electromagnetic medium is an artificially-structured material.

160. The method of claim 159, wherein the artificially-structured material includes a metamaterial.

161-271. -271. (canceled)