The Effect of Gain Saturation in a Gain Compensated Perfect Lens

Abstract

Perfect lenses operating in the near visible spectrum has only recently been introduced, and these kind of metamaterials seem to have a large potential. One problem encountered with these perfect lenses are exceedingly large intrinsic losses, making them impractical for use in applications. This project has explored some of the limitations in using gain to compensate for these losses, specifically the effect of gain saturation has been considered. Gain saturation has been proven to limit the maximum parallel spatial frequency that can be reproduced by the lens. Even though, it has been shown that amplification has the potential to increase the resolution limit by a measurable factor. In the case of several waves traversing the lens simultanously, the critical factor is how much of the total amplitudes lies in waves close to the resolution limit. Waves with relatively small parallel spatial frequencies requires small amplifications, and those with high parallel spatial frequencies will get attenuated or reflected almost immediately, meaning both these types contribute little to gain saturation.