Overcoming the Diffraction Limit with Metamaterials

A metamaterial is an artificial material that can be designed to possess a diverse range of optical properties, including those that have never been found in nature. Far-field optical imaging was previously believed to have a fundamental limit in resolution due to diffraction. However, various novel imaging methods have recently been developed to overcome this limit, and a metamaterial, with its immense degree of freedom in its optical properties, is a versatile platform for developing such a new imaging methodology.