Emitting and negatively-refractive focusing apparatus, methods, and systems
Apparatus, methods, and systems provide emitting and negatively-refractive focusing of electromagnetic energy. In some approaches the negatively-refractive focusing includes negatively-refractive focusing from an interior field region with an axial magnification substantially less than one. In some approaches the negatively-refractive focusing includes negatively-refractive focusing with a transformation medium, where the transformation medium may include an artificially-structured material such as a metamaterial.
1. A method, comprising:
spatially dilating an electromagnetic wave along a dilation direction;
negatively refracting the dilated electromagnetic wave at a surface region, the surface region defining a surface normal direction corresponding to the dilation direction; and
emitting the electromagnetic wave at one or more locations within a field region;
wherein
the surface region is a surface region of an electromagnetic medium;
the spatially dilating is spatially dilating by propagating the electromagnetic wave in the electromagnetic medium;
the electromagnetic medium includes a negative refractive index medium; and
the negatively refracting and the spatially dilating provide the field region for the electromagnetic wave.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spatially dilating is spatially dilating with a scale factor greater than one.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spatially dilating is spatially dilating with a uniform scale factor.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spatially dilating is spatially dilating with a non-uniform scale factor.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic wave is a polarized electromagnetic wave.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TE-polarized electromagnetic wave.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the polarized electromagnetic wave is a TM-polarized electromagnetic wave.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic wave is an unpolarized electromagnetic wave.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic wave is at a first frequency.
10. The method of claim 9 , where the first frequency is an optical frequency.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the optical frequency corresponds to a visible wavelength.
12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the optical frequency corresponds to an infrared wavelength.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first frequency is a radio frequency.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the radio frequency is a microwave frequency.
15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first frequency is a millimeter-wave frequency.
16. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first frequency is a submillimeter-wave frequency.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spatially dilating includes:
spatially dilating a first component of the electromagnetic wave at a first frequency along the dilation direction; and
spatially dilating a second component of the electromagnetic wave at a second frequency along the dilation direction.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein:
the spatially dilating of the first component is spatially dilating of the first component with a first scale factor greater than one; and
the spatially dilating of the second component is spatially dilating of the second component with a second scale factor greater than one.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first scale factor is different than the second scale factor.
20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the field region defines an axial magnification along the dilation direction, the axial magnification inversely corresponding to a scale factor of the spatially dilating.
21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emitting includes emitting with at least one antenna.
22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emitting includes luminescent emitting.
23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emitting includes incandescent emitting.
24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more locations is a plurality of locations.
25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the plurality of locations is at least partially distributed along the dilation direction.
26. The method of claim 24 , wherein the emitting includes emitting with a plurality of antennas.
27. The method of claim 26 , wherein the plurality of antennas composes an antenna phased array.
28. The method of claim 1 , wherein the negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting.
29. The method of claim 28 , wherein the substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting is substantially-nonreflectively negatively refracting by wave-impedance matching.
30. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic medium is a transformation medium.
31. The method of claim 30 , wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate dilation, the axial coordinate dilation corresponding to the spatially dilating.
32. The method of claim 30 , wherein transformation medium provides a coordinate transformation that includes an axial coordinate inversion, the axial coordinate inversion corresponding to the negatively refracting.
33. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electromagnetic medium is an artificially-structured material.
34. The method of claim 33 , wherein the artificially-structured material includes a metamaterial.