Hyperbolic Metamaterials: A Path Towards Nanooptics Applications

The importance of optics in our lives is hard to overestimate. Optics is the basis for human vision, for long-distance communications, and for remote sensing. However, a large class of optical applications is limited by the diffraction limit – inability to confine propagating optical signals to subwavelength spots or to retrieve information about the subwavelength signals. A new class of composite materials, known as hyperbolic metamateirals, has been recently shown to reverse one of the fundamental laws of optics – Snell’s law. This talk will be focused on other unusual behaviors of light inside hyperbolic metamaterials, tailored towards elimination of diffraction limit, subwavelength focusing, nanolithography, and subwavelength imaging apparatus.