title: Breaking the imaging symmetry in negative refraction lenses.
abstract: Optical lenses are pervasive in various areas of sciences and technologies. It is well known that conventional lenses have symmetrical imaging properties along forward and backward directions. In this letter, we show that hyperbolic plasmonic metamaterial based negative refraction lenses perform as either converging lenses or diverging lenses depending on the illumination directions. New imaging equations and properties that are different from those of all the existing optical lenses are also presented. These new imaging properties, including symmetry breaking as well as the super resolving power, significantly expand the horizon of imaging optics and optical system design.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0407, USA.
authors.forename: Changbao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Zhaowei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007909:Lenses; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*