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Three-dimensional visible-light capsule enclosing perfect supersized darkness via antiresolution

  • Chao Wan
  • , Kun Huang
  • , Tiancheng Han
  • , Eunice S.P. Leong
  • , Weiqiang Ding
  • , Lei Zhang
  • , Tat Soon Yeo
  • , Xia Yu
  • , Jinghua Teng
  • , Dang Yuan Lei
  • , Stefan A. Maier
  • , Boris Luk'yanchuk
  • , Shuang Zhang
  • , Cheng Wei Qiu*
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • National University of Singapore
  • Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore
  • Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Imperial College London
  • University of Birmingham

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Supersized darkness in three dimensions surrounded by all light in free space is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally in the visible regime. The object staying in the darkness is similar to staying in an empty light capsule because light just bypasses it by resorting to destructive interference. A binary-optical system is designed and fabricated based on achieving antiresolution (AR), by which electromagnetic energy flux avoids and bends smoothly around a nearly perfect darkness region. AR remains an unexplored topic hitherto, in contrast to the super-resolution for realizing high spatial resolution. This novel scheme replies on smearing out the point spread function and thus poses less stringent limitations upon the object's size and position since the created dark (zero-field) area reach 8 orders of magnitude larger than λ2 in cross-sectional size. It functions very well with arbitrarily polarized beams in three dimensions, which is also frequency scalable in the whole electromagnetic spectrum. A binary-optical system is designed and fabricated based on achieving anti-resolution, by which electromagnetic energy flux avoids and bends smoothly around a nearly perfect darkness region. This scheme replies on smearing out the point spread function and thus poses less stringent limitations upon the object's size and position. It functions at a single input beam with arbitrary polarization in three dimensions, which is also frequency-scalable in the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)743-749
Number of pages7
JournalLaser and Photonics Reviews
Volume8
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anti-resolution
  • Binary-optical system
  • Diffraction
  • Optical capsule

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