Engineering space for light via transformation optics

Abstract

Conceptual studies and numerical simulations are performed for imaging devices that transform a near-field pattern into magnified far-zone images and are based on high-order spatial transformation in cylindrical domains. A lens translating a near-field pattern from an almost circular input boundary onto a magnified far-field image at a flat output boundary is considered. The lens is made of a metamaterial with anisotropic permittivity and permeability both depending on a single “scaling” parameter of the transformation. Open designs of the lens with a truncated body ($\frac{3}{4}$-body and $\frac{1}{4}$-body lenses) are suggested and analyzed. It is shown that the ideal full lens and the $\frac{3}{4}$-body lens produce identical images. Numerical simulations of $\frac{1}{4}$-body designs indicate that further truncation of the lens could limit its performance. A light concentrator “focusing” far-zone fields into a nanometer-scale area is also considered.