Paper detail

Super-resolution for a point source better than λ/500 using positive refraction

Leonhardt demonstrated (2009) that the 2D Maxwell Fish Eye lens (MFE) can perfectly focus 2D Helmholtz waves of arbitrary frequency, i.e., it can perfectly transport an outward (monopole) 2D Helmholtz wave field, generated by a point source, towards a "perfect point drain" located at the corresponding image point. Moreover, a prototype with λ/5 super-resolution property for one microwave frequency has been manufactured and tested (Ma et al, 2010). However, software simulations or experimental measurements for a broad band of frequencies have not been reported. Here we present simulations with a non-perfect drain for a device equivalent to the MFE, called the Spherical Geodesic Waveguide (SGW), that predict up to λ/500 super-resolution close to discrete frequencies. These frequencies are directly connected with the well-known Schumann resonance frequencies of spherical symmetric systems. Out of these frequencies, the SGW does not show super-resolution in the analysis performed.