Superlensing effect of an anisotropic metamaterial slab with near-zero dynamic mass

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel anisotropic metamaterial slab that acts as a superlens for acoustic imaging beyond the diffraction limit, utilizing zero and infinite mass components for extraordinary evanescent wave transmission.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new anisotropic metamaterial design with zero and infinite mass components that functions as a superlens without thickness limitations.

Findings

Successfully models superlensing effect numerically.

Achieves imaging beyond diffraction limit.

Operates independently of lens thickness.

Abstract

A metamaterial slab of anisotropic mass with one diagonal component being infinity and the other being zero is demonstrated to behave as a superlens for acoustic imaging beyond the diffraction limit. The underlying mechanism for extraordinary transmission of evanescent waves is attributed to the zero mass effect. Microstructure design for such anisotropic lens is also presented. In contrast to the anisotropic superlens based on Fabry-P\'erot resonant mechanism, the proposed lens operates without the limitation on lens thickness, thus more flexible in practical applications. Numerical modeling is performed to validate the proposed ideas.