Recently, the near-field superlens (NFSL) based on the negative permittivity (ε < 0) has been much attraction issue because of its useful application in a near-field imaging system beyond the diffraction limits. Silver in the UV region and silicon carbide in the mid-IR regime has been reported as suitable materials for the NFSL. However, these materials have the intrinsic absorption loss, which blurs the near-field image. In this research, we theoretically predict enhancement of image quality in a lossy NFSL system using the full-wave numerical approach and electrostatic approximation method. As a result, we recognized that an unmatched NFSL has better image quality compared to the traditional match NFSL.

Date Published: 1 September 2009
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7392, Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications II, 73921E (1 September 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.826796

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7392:
Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications II
Mikhail A. Noginov; Nikolay I. Zheludev; Allan D. Boardman; Nader Engheta, Editor(s)