Negatively-refractive focusing and sensing apparatus, methods, and systems

• US 8,730,591 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2008
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Bowers, Jeffrey A., Hyde, Roderick A., Jung, Edward K. Y., Pendry, John Brian, Schurig, David, Smith, David R., Tegreene, Clarence T., Weaver, Thomas A., Whitmer, Charles, Wood, Lowell L. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrington, Alicia M
• Application Number:
  US12/288,428
• Publication Number:
  US 20100033832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,038 Days
• Field of Search: 359/724, 359/721, 359/672, 359/676
• US Class Current: 359/721
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/00 Simple or compound lenses
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/292 by controlled diffraction or phased-array beam steering controlled diffraction for optical switching G02F1/31
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2202/30 Metamaterials
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2203/28 focussing or defocussing

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, and systems provide negatively-refractive focusing and sensing of electromagnetic energy. In some approaches the negatively-refractive focusing includes providing an interior focusing region with an axial magnification substantially less 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. A method, comprising:

negatively refracting an electromagnetic wave at a surface region, the surface region defining a surface normal direction;

spatially contracting the refracted electromagnetic wave along a contraction direction, the contraction direction corresponding to the surface normal direction, wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide a focusing region for the refracted electromagnetic wave; and

sensing the electromagnetic wave at one or more locations within the focusing region;

wherein the sensing includes sensing with at least one antenna.

2. A method, comprising:

negatively refracting an electromagnetic wave at a surface region, the surface region defining a surface normal direction;

spatially contracting the refracted electromagnetic wave along a contraction direction, the contraction direction corresponding to the surface normal direction, wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide a focusing region for the refracted electromagnetic wave; and

sensing the electromagnetic wave at a plurality of locations within the focusing region.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of locations is at least partially distributed along the contraction direction.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensing includes sensing with a plurality of antennas.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of antennas composes an antenna phased array.

6. A method, comprising:

negatively refracting an electromagnetic wave at a surface region, the surface region defining a surface normal direction; and

spatially contracting the refracted electromagnetic wave along a contraction direction, the contraction direction corresponding to the surface normal direction;

wherein the surface region is a surface region of an electromagnetic medium, and the spatially contracting is spatially contracting by propagating the refracted electromagnetic wave in the electromagnetic medium; and

wherein the electromagnetic medium is a transformation medium; and

wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate inversion, the axial coordinate inversion corresponding to the negatively refracting.

7. The method of claim 6,

wherein the electromagnetic wave is at a first frequency;

and

wherein the first frequency is a submillimeter-wave frequency.

8. The method of claim 6,

wherein the spatially contracting includes:

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

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

9. The method of claim 8, 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.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first scale factor is different than the second scale factor.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first frequency is different than the second frequency.

12. The method of claim 6,

wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide a focusing region for the refracted electromagnetic wave;

and

wherein the focusing region defines an axial magnification along the contraction direction, the axial magnification corresponding to a scale factor of the spatially contracting.

13. The method of claim 6,

wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide a focusing region for the refracted electromagnetic wave;

and the method further comprises;

sensing the electromagnetic wave at one or more locations within the focusing region.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the sensing includes sensing with at least one photodetector.

15. The method of claim 6,

wherein the negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting;

and

wherein the substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting by wave-impedance matching.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a uniform scale factor.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a non-uniform scale factor.

18. The method of claim 6, wherein the electromagnetic wave is a polarized electromagnetic wave.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TE-polarized electromagnetic wave.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TM-polarized electromagnetic wave.

21. The method of claim 6, wherein the electromagnetic wave is an unpolarized electromagnetic wave.

22. The method of claim 6, wherein the electromagnetic wave is at an optical frequency.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the optical frequency corresponds to a visible wavelength.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the optical frequency corresponds to an infrared wavelength.

25. The method of claim 6, wherein the electromagnetic wave is at a radio frequency.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the radio frequency is a microwave frequency.

27. The method of claim 6, wherein the electromagnetic wave is at a millimeter-wave frequency.

28. The method of claim 6, wherein the coordinate transformation includes an axial coordinate contraction, the axial coordinate contraction corresponding to the spatially contracting.

29. The method of claim 6 wherein the electromagnetic medium is an artificially-structured material.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the artificially-structured material includes a metamaterial.