Subwavelength Imaging Using Conducting Sheets

Abstract

Here we demonstrate that, paradoxically, subwavelength imaging can be produced by purely resistive means. Space acts like a low pass filter for highly evanescent field components, and if a sheet or thin layer of imperfectly conducting material is placed adjacent to a source, such that the layer overcomes the larger impedance of the spatial low pass filter, no relative attenuation of evanescent components is experienced at the location of the sheet. This results in near-field subwavelength imaging, which also holds for reactive sheets. The conducting layer enables us to trade definition for amplitude. Impedance sheets are commonplace in radio frequencies or microwaves, hence the phenomenon identified here is widespread, and can be extended into the IR or optical region, as well as to other areas of physics where wave motion exists.