Abstract

Optical metamaterials designed for extreme control over the flow of light at both the nano- and macroscopic scales are discussed. These extreme metamaterials incorporate the innovative theories of transformation optics (TO), and hyperlens and are pertinent to the important areas of optical cloaking, sub-wavelength sensing, super-resolution imaging, and magnifying hyperlens. Review of recent progress in the field of optical metamaterials is presented. Transformation optics is a new paradigm for the science of light, which is enabled by recent developments in metamaterials. The TO theory, built on fundamental variational principles allows the control of light in an extreme and ultimate manner by providing a general recipe for obtaining complex spatial distributions of anisotropic permittivity and permeability. Using these distributions, a “curvilinear” optical space can be made, creating the channel for the desired flow of light.

© 2008 Optical Society of America