4786 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 37, No.

22 / November 15, 2012

Lens equation for flat lenses made with

hyperbolic metamaterials
Jessica Bénédicto,1,2 Emmanuel Centeno,1,2,* and Antoine Moreau1,2
1
Clermont Universités, Université Blaise Pascal, Institut Pascal, BP 10448, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
2
CNRS UMR 6602, F-63171 Aubière, France
*Corresponding author: Emmanuel.centeno@univ‑bpclermont.fr
Received June 8, 2012; revised September 10, 2012; accepted September 12, 2012;
posted September 27, 2012 (Doc. ID 170184); published November 14, 2012
This study aims to give a general theory that enables the design of flat lenses based on hyperbolic metamaterials. We
derive a lens equation that is demonstrated to involve the curvature of the dispersion relation. Guided by this theory,
hyperbolic lenses of focal length ranging from zero to a few wavelength are simulated. High transmission efficiency
is also obtained by reducing the amount of metal compared to the dielectric material. © 2012 Optical Society of
America
OCIS codes: 160.3918, 310.6805.

Metamaterials play a crucial role in recent development mechanism, subwavelength resolution is only possible
of advanced photonic systems. Their success stems from at near-field distance smaller than λ=4. This process dif-
their incomparable faculty to tailor the optical effective fers from the evanescent amplification in perfect lenses
response of matter [1]. This feature, combined with trans- that theoretically allows to focalize an image at distances
formation optics techniques, has allowed for the realiza- larger than λ with a super resolution. However, in both
tion of cloaking devices or novel lenses [2,3]. In the latter parabolic and hyperbolic lenses the presence of plasmo-
case, Pendry’s pioneer work has shown that flat slabs nic modes have been identified to strongly contribute to
with a negative refractive index allow for the focalization the resolution [10]. Beyond their near-field properties,
of subwavelength images [4]. This concept has been hyperbolic metamaterials have also been used to make
realized for frequencies ranging from THz to GHz in hyperlenses that provide far-field images with subwave-
metamaterial-based devices that present either a nega- length resolution [9,11–13]. As depicted in several works,
tive permittivity or both negative permittivity and perme- this property derives from the compression of the angu-
ability [5,6]. Such a flat lens with negative effective index lar frequency, which allows in return to magnify the
mimics a homogeneous medium with a parabolic disper- object [14,15]. Hyperbolic metamaterials would seem to
sion relation k2x
k2y  ϵμω2 =c2 . In that case, the lens only operate in those two extremes regimes (near- or far-
equation is simply related to the thickness e of the flat field) if Scalora and coauthors had not demonstrated that
lens, and the object and image focal lengths, f o and f i , are the focalization at distances of λ=2 was possible [16].
given by f o
f i  e [7]. Hyperbolic metamaterials have However, to date, there is no theory that can help in the
then quite naturally emerged as an alternative approach design of flat hyperbolic lens whose focal length is sized
to yield subwavelength images. These anisotropic mate- at will. To address this issue, we apply a beam propaga-
rials, which can be achieved by stacking dielectric and tion theory recently developed to demonstrate resonant
metallic layers, actually present a hyperbolic dispersion and slow light self-collimation in layered media [17,18].
relation k2x =ϵy
k2y =ϵx  ω2 =c2 with ϵy < 0 and ϵx > 0. This semiclassical theory, successfully applied for hyper-
Near-field [8] or far-field [9] subwavelength images can lenses [19], allows us to derive the lens equation of
be formed using hyperbolic metamaterials. In the case of hyperbolic lenses and unifies previous results [8,16]. Our
near-field focalization [8], a canalization mechanism has approach even leads to an overall improvement of the
been proven to transport both propagating and evanes- transmission efficiency of such lenses despite the optical
cent waves emitted by the source in a self-collimation losses induced by the metallic layers.
regime. An image is formed right at the end of the flat Let us start by setting the optical conditions required to
lens with a theoretical resolution of λ=60. This super re- design a hyperbolic lens. As discussed previously, a hyper-
solution is attributed to the hyperbolic dispersion ky 
q












































bolic dispersion characterized by an anisotropic permit-
p




tivity tensor of diagonal elements ϵx > 0 and ϵy < 0 is
ϵx ω =c 
k2x
jϵy j that enables the propulsion of
2 2
required. In the homogenization regime and for TM polar-
propagating waves of real wavevector ky whatever the ization (out of plane magnetic field), Maxwell–Garnet’s
value of the transverse wavevector kx . Hyperbolic lenses formulas give these components in terms of thicknesses
convert the evanescent waves radiated by the object into d1 , d2 and permittivities ϵ1 , ϵ2 of the dielectric and metallic
propagating waves carrying subwavelength details. The slabs:
conjugate points for such a lens are however located  −1 −1
right on the interfaces of the structure, which leads to ϵ1 d1
ϵ2 d2 ϵ1 d1
ϵ−1
2 d2
place both object and image at the vicinity of the ϵx  ; ϵy  ; (1)
D D
hyperbolic lens interfaces. This is also required to obtain
subwavelength resolved images since a part of the trans- where D  d1
d2 is the lattice period. At optical frequen-
mitted spectrum is converted back into evanescent cies, the negative permittivity ϵ2 of metals allows the
waves at the end interface. Because of this conversion design of a hyperbolic medium of appropriate permittivity
0146-9592/12/224786-03$15.00/0 © 2012 Optical Society of America
 November 15, 2012 / Vol. 37, No. 22 / OPTICS LETTERS 4787

Z D E
components when the following conditions, derived from ∞ k2
−iL2kx 1

Ux; L  eihky ω;0iL ; 0eikx x e 0 nc

Eq. (1), are satisfied: dkx Ukx ; (5)
−∞
jϵ2 j d2 ϵ
< < 1 ; − ϵ1 < ϵ2 < ϵ1 : (2) where L  f o
ND
f i is the total distance between
ϵ1 d1 jϵ2 j the object and the image, hky ω; 0iL represents the
mean phase, and the average curvature index is given
Here, we chose diamond and silver layers with permittiv- by h1=nc i  L−1  f o
ND=nc
f i . When the average
ities equal to ϵ1  5.08 for diamond and ϵ2  −1.78
0.6i curvature vanishes, h1=nc i  0, Eq. (5) simplifies to
for silver at 350 nm [20]. As shown by conditions (2), this Ux; L  Ux; 0eihky ω;0iL . This demonstrates that the
permittivity contrast enables us to drastically decrease beam is phase delayed and retrieves its initial waist
the amount of metal, reducing in turn the optical absorp- W 0 when the following lens equation is satisfied:
tion of the lens. In the following, we will consider a lens
consisting of N  20 periods of hyperbolic metamaterials ND
with d1  2.8d2 , presenting a particularly good transmis- fo
fi  − : (6)
nc
sion efficiency. Figure 1 shows the transmission diagram
computed for the fixed wavelength λ  350 nm and for The focal lengths are then directly determined by the
a varying period D. The transmission larger than 20% curvature index of hyperbolic dispersion relation. In
is enhanced by adding an antireflecting
p




coating made of the homogenization regime, the curvature p index is
diamond layers of thickness λ=10 ϵ1  placed at the





driven by the effective permittivities: nc  ϵy = ϵx . The
boundaries of the structure. canalization regime proposed by Belov stands in flat iso-
Let us derive the lens equation and show that the focal frequency curves (IFCs) obtained when ϵy → −∞. In that
length can be tuned from zero to a few wavelengths. The case as shown by Eq. (6), the focal distance tends to
propagation of a Gaussian beam on a distance y in a med- zero so that the object and the image are located at the
ium with a dispersion relation ky ω; kx  can be written vicinity of the lens interfaces. However, it has been also
Z ∞
shown [16] that such a hyperbolic lens can also focalize
Ux; y  ~ x ; 0eikx x eiky kx y ;
dkx Uk (3) light at a distance of λ=2. This result can be explained by
−∞ considering the curvature index beyond the long wave-
~ x ; 0  W 0 =2p



length regime. For that purpose, the IFCs are computed
where Uk π  exp−kx W 0 =22  is the for our structure by taking into account the metal losses
angular spectrum of the Gaussian beam. The dispersion in the dispersion relation of 1D photonic crystals [17].
relation can be approximated for small values of kx by Figure 2(b) shows that the curvature index is positive
in the long wavelength limit when metallic losses are
k2x 1 taken into account. The canalization regime is obviously
ky ω; kx   ky ω; 0 − ; 4
2k0 nc perturbed by the introduction of optical losses since the
flatness of the IFC at D=λ  0.05 is lost around kx  0,
where the curvature index [17,18] of the medium is Fig. 2(a). The central propagating spectrum of the beam
given by nc  −k0 ∂2 ky =∂k2x jkx 0 −1 with k0  2π=λ. For diverges, showing the negative impact of losses on the
a homogeneous medium, nc reduces to the refractive in- resolution. At the reduced frequency D=λ  0.1 the cur-
dex. Equation (3) can be used, along with the quadratic vature index diverges to infinity, since a flat IFC is met.
approximation for the dispersion relation, to describe the Beyond this frequency, the curvature index ranges from
propagation of a Gaussian beam on a distance f 0 in air large negative values to zero when reaching a photonic
between the object focus and the lens, inside the multi- band gap between the first and second bands. This wide
layer considered as a homogeneous medium, and finally variation of nc , which cannot be anticipated with the
on a distance f i in air between the lens and the image homogenization approach, provides us a new way to de-
(Fig. 1). This finally yields sign hyperbolic lenses of focal distance scaled between
zero and a few wavelengths. To demonstrate this prop-
erty, the theoretical image-focal distance f i computed
from Eq. (6) is compared with the simulated one (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2. (Color online) (a) IFCs computed for Ag/Diamond

Fig. 1. Design and transmission diagram of the hyperlens with layers with the metal losses. (b) Curvature index versus the
and without antireflection coating (AR). reduced frequency.
4788 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 37, No. 22 / November 15, 2012

adjusted on-demand. Beyond the homogenization regime,

light focalization is demonstrated to be driven by the
local dispersion curvature. This theory allows the trans-
mission efficiency to be optimized by a drastic reduction
of the metal amount that decreases optical losses.

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