Scientific American Magazine Highlights Zhang Group’s Research

Since the pioneering experimental work of Professor Xiang Zhang’s research group, superlensing at optical frequencies is now a reality. In the July, 2006 Issue of Scientific American, John Pendry (Imperial College London, UK) and David Smith (Duke) highlight the first demonstration of superlensing by Zhang’s group at UC Berkeley.

“ … Xiang Zhang’s group at the University of California, Berkeley, independently followed this prescription and demonstrated superresolution in an optical system.  …  Zhang used a layer of silver about 40 nanometers thick to image 365-nanometer-wavelength light emanating from shaped apertures smaller than the light’s wavelength. Although a silver slab is far from the ideal lens, the silver superlens substantially improved the image resolution, proving the underlying principle of superlensing.”

Zhang reported the demonstration of what he called a “Superlens” in the April 2005 Issue of Science, which allows never-before-seen detail by essentially recovering light waves that have traditionally been lost in lenses. "In a regular lens you can transmit only part of the spectrum of the waves," he says. "One type of waves cannot pass through to the image. If you can view the lens made by metamaterial, it has the capability to enhance or amplify this wave ... then the image has a much sharper resolution."

Link to Scientific American Article:

Link to Prof. Zhang’s Science Article