Superlens

Patent Granted A practical superlens, super lens or perfect lens, is a lens which uses metamaterials to go beyond the diffraction limit. The diffraction limit is an inherent limitation in conventional optical devices or lenses. As Ernst Abbe reported in 1873, the lens of a camera or microscope is incapable of capturing some very fine details of any given image. The super lens, on the other hand, is intended to capture these fine details. Consequently, conventional lens limitation has inhibited progress in certain areas of the biological sciences. This is because a virus or DNA molecule is out of visual range with the highest powered microscopes. Also, this limitation inhibits seeing the minute processes of cellular proteins moving alongside microtubules of a living cell in their natural environments. Additionally, computer chips and the interrelated microelectronics are manufactured to smaller and smaller scales. This requires specialized optical equipment, which is also limited because these use the conventional lens. Hence, the principles governing a super lens show that it has potential for imaging a DNA molecule and cellular protein processes, or aiding in the manufacture of even smaller computer chips and microelectronics.