Left-Handed Materials Do Not Make a Perfect Lens

Abstract

By means of an analysis on evanescent waves in left-handed materials (LHM), we show that within a slab of such a medium, sandwiched between two positive refraction media, there is amplification of evanescent waves in ideal lossless, dispersiveless media; however, contrary to previous claims, this is limited to a finite width of the slab so that it prevents their restoration and perfect focusing. We illustrate this by considering their coupling to propagating waves through a tunnel barrier containing a slab of LHM. Further, we show that the effect of absorption, necessarily present in such materials, may drastically change any evanescent amplifying wave into a decaying one.