Determination of Spectral Focusing Features of a Metamaterial Slab

Abstract

The realization of flat superlenses is a major application area of metamaterials. A slab of double negative (DNG) material is capable of imaging with a resolution below the diffraction limit. The focusing quality depends primarily on the amount by which the original spectrum of the source is restored behind the lens. Even a small deviation from the ideal case limits the spectrum of the transmitted field, which may result in a significant degradation of the focusing quality. In this work we determine the width of the transmitted spectrum as a function of the configuration parameters and establish a relation between the spectrum width and the imaging quality. Restrictions imposed on the focusing characteristics and difficulties arising in full wave simulations will be pointed out.