Perfect Lensing by a Single Interface: Defying Loss and Bandwidth Limitations of Metamaterials

Abstract

Loss is known to be detrimental for achieving perfect focusing with the passive perfect lens designs suggested thus far, and it is believed to pose a fundamental barrier. We show that perfect lensing can be achieved with actual lossy left-handed metamaterials, without a need for gain or nonlinearity. The proposed loss-immune perfect lens is composed of a single interface between a conventional dielectric material on the source side and a lossy left-handed material on the image side. Its immunity to material loss was derived analytically using three complementary methodologies, confirming perfect lensing with point-to-point accuracy and shedding light on the underlying focusing mechanism. This result provides a new road map for practical realization of a near-field camera based on the single-interface lens design.