Metal-free flat lens using negative refraction by nonlinear four-wave mixing.

Abstract

A perfect lens with unlimited resolution has always posed a challenge to both theoretical and experimental physicists. Recent developments in optical metamaterials promise an attractive approach towards perfect lenses using negative refraction to overcome the diffraction limit, improving resolution. However, those artificially engineered metamaterials are usually accompanied by high losses from metals and are extremely difficult to fabricate. An alternative proposal using negative refraction by four-wave mixing has attracted much interest recently, though most existing experiments still require metals and none of them have been implemented for an optical lens. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a metal-free flat lens for the first time using negative refraction by degenerate four-wave mixing with a thin glass slide. We realize an optical lensing effect utilizing a nonlinear refraction law, which may have potential applications in microscopy.