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Concept
Superlens
Summary
A superlens, or super lens, is a lens which uses metamaterials to go beyond the diffraction limit. The diffraction limit is a feature of conventional lenses and microscopes that limits the fineness of their resolution depending on the illumination wavelength and the numerical aperture NA of the objective lens. Many lens designs have been proposed that go beyond the diffraction limit in some way, but constraints and obstacles face each of them.
In 1873 Ernst Abbe reported that conventional lenses are incapable of capturing some fine details of any given image. The superlens is intended to capture such details. The limitation of conventional lenses has inhibited progress in the biological sciences. This is because a virus or DNA molecule cannot be resolved with the highest powered conventional microscopes. This limitation extends to the minute processes of cellular proteins moving alongside microtubules of a living cell in their natural environments. Additionally, computer chips and the interrelated microelectronics continue to be manufactured at progressively smaller scales. This requires specialized optical equipment, which is also limited because these use conventional lenses. Hence, the principles governing a superlens show that it has potential for imaging DNA molecules, cellular protein processes, and aiding in the manufacture of even smaller computer chips and microelectronics.
Conventional lenses capture only the propagating light waves. These are waves that travel from a light source or an object to a lens, or the human eye. This can alternatively be studied as the far field. In contrast, a superlens captures propagating light waves and waves that stay on top of the surface of an object, which, alternatively, can be studied as both the far field and the near field.
In the early 20th century the term "superlens" was used by Dennis Gabor to describe something quite different: a compound lenslet array system.
An image of an object can be defined as a tangible or visible representation of the features of that object.
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