Finite-difference frequency-domain study of subwavelength lensing in left-handed materials

Abstract

We show that the finite-difference frequency-domain method is well-suited to study subwavelength lensing effects in left-handed materials (LHM's) and related problems. The method is efficient and works in the frequency domain, eliminating the need for specifying dispersion models for the permeability and permittivity as required by the popular finite-difference time-domain method. We show that "superlensing" in a LHM slab with refractive index n = -1 can be approached by introducing an arbitrarily small loss term. We also study a thin silver slab, which can exhibit subwavelength imaging in the electrostatic limit.