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Published online: 6 August 2008 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2008.181

Optical devices: Window replacement

Felix Cheung

Introduction

© (2008) OSA

The development of metamaterials — artificially engineered composites that can bend visible light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation in unusual ways — has brought forth the possibility of novel optical devices, such as invisibility cloaks, wave concentrators, and wave polarization rotators. Xudong Luo and co-workers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University¹ have proposed another use for metamaterials — turning narrow windows into wide windows.

The researchers simulated numerically the way light is transmitted in two circumstances: light passing through a wide opening formed between two rectangular obstacles (see top image); and light passing through a narrow slit formed between two trapezoidal obstacles (see bottom image). They showed that if the region between the trapezoidal obstacles has the right permittivity and permeability, the narrow slit can transmit light in the same way and form the same diffraction pattern as the wide opening.

One way to achieve this would be to fill the narrow slit with metamaterials. The concept is in the same spirit as cloaking, where light is bent in such a way that it propagates just as it would if the metamaterial object were not there. The proposed idea is promising because it does not require extreme values of permittivity or permeability. Also, by using this idea, wide windows in buildings or devices can be replaced by narrow slits for improved stability.

The authors of this work are from:
Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

Reference

1. Zhang, X., Chen, H., Luo, X. & Ma, H. Transformation media that turn a narrow slit into a large window. Opt. Express 16, 11764–11768 (2008). | Article |