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

• US 8,817,380 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2008
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• 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): Sugarman, Scott J
• Application Number:
  US12/288,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20100033833A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,135 Days
• Field of Search: 359/642, 359/680, 359/724, 343/700.R
• 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. A method, comprising:

spatially contracting an electromagnetic wave along a contraction direction by propagating the electromagnetic wave in an electromagnetic medium that includes a negative refractive index medium;

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

and emitting the electromagnetic wave at one or more locations within a field region;

wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide the field region for the electromagnetic wave.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a scale factor less than one.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a uniform scale factor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatially contracting is spatially contracting with a non-uniform scale factor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic wave is a polarized electromagnetic wave.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TE-polarized electromagnetic wave.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TM-polarized electromagnetic wave.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic wave is an unpolarized electromagnetic wave.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic wave is at a first frequency.

10. The method of claim 9, where the first frequency is an optical frequency.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the optical frequency corresponds to a visible wavelength.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the optical frequency corresponds to an infrared wavelength.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the first frequency is a radio frequency.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the radio frequency is a microwave frequency.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first frequency is a millimeter-wave frequency.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the first frequency is a submillimeter-wave frequency.

17. The method of claim 1, 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.

18. The method of claim 17, 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.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first scale factor is different than the second scale factor.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the negatively refracting and the spatially contracting provide a field region for the electromagnetic wave.

21. The method of claim 20, 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.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

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

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the emitting includes emitting with at least one antenna.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the emitting includes luminescent emitting.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the emitting includes incandescent emitting.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the one or more locations is a plurality of locations.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the plurality of locations is at least partially distributed along the contraction direction.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the emitting includes emitting with a plurality of antennas.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the plurality of antennas composes an antenna phased array.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting by wave-impedance matching.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic medium is a transformation medium.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate contraction, the axial coordinate contraction corresponding to the spatially contracting.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate inversion, the axial coordinate inversion corresponding to the negatively refracting.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic medium is an artificially-structured material.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the artificially-structured material includes a metamaterial.