Recently, artificially constructed metamaterials have become of considerable interest, because these materials can exhibit electromagnetic characteristics unlike those of any conventional materials. Artificial magnetism and negative refractive index are two specific types of behavior that have been demonstrated over the past few years, illustrating the new physics and new applications possible when we expand our view as to what constitutes a material. In this review, we describe recent advances in metamaterials research and discuss the potential that these materials may hold for realizing new and seemingly exotic electromagnetic phenomena.

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Metamaterials and negative refractive index.

Recent theory has predicted a superlens that is capable of producing sub–diffraction-limited images. This superlens would allow the recovery of evanescent waves in an image via the excitation of surface plasmons. Using silver as a natural optical superlens, we demonstrated sub–diffraction-limited imaging with 60-nanometer half-pitch resolution, or one-sixth of the illumination wavelength. By proper design of the working wavelength and the thickness of silver that allows access to a broad spectrum of subwavelength features, we also showed that arbitrary nanostructures can be imaged with good fidelity. The optical superlens promises exciting avenues to nanoscale optical imaging and ultrasmall optoelectronic devices.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/308/5721/534.full.pdf

Sub-Diffraction-Limited Optical Imaging with a Silver Superlens

A universal instability of many-dimensional oscillator systems

Artificially engineered metamaterials are now demonstrating unprecedented electromagnetic properties that cannot be obtained with naturally occurring materials. In particular, they provide a route to creating materials that possess a negative refractive index and offer exciting new prospects for manipulating light. This review describes the recent progress made in creating nanostructured metamaterials with a negative index at optical wavelengths, and discusses some of the devices that could result from these new materials.

/pdf/optical-negative-index-metamaterials-2q5qafgl3m.pdf

Optical negative-index metamaterials

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is an approach to fusion that relies on the inertia of the fuel mass to provide confinement. To achieve conditions under which inertial confinement is sufficient for efficient thermonuclear burn, a capsule (generally a spherical shell) containing thermonuclear fuel is compressed in an implosion process to conditions of high density and temperature. ICF capsules rely on either electron conduction (direct drive) or x rays (indirect drive) for energy transport to drive an implosion. In direct drive, the laser beams (or charged particle beams) are aimed directly at a target. The laser energy is transferred to electrons by means of inverse bremsstrahlung or a variety of plasma collective processes. In indirect drive, the driver energy (from laser beams or ion beams) is first absorbed in a high‐Z enclosure (a hohlraum), which surrounds the capsule. The material heated by the driver emits x rays, which drive the capsule implosion. For optimally designed targets, 70%–80% of the d...

/pdf/development-of-the-indirect-drive-approach-to-inertial-314a4yq250.pdf

Development of the indirect‐drive approach to inertial confinement fusion and the target physics basis for ignition and gain

The Fusion Ignition Experiment (IGNITEX) can be realized in a single-turn-coil tokamak which should ohmically heat a D-T mixture to thermonuclear conditions. Present knowledge of fusion physics indicates that the experiment has a high probability for ignition and that a thermally stable ignited phase can be produced. The fusion physics characteristics of the experiment are discussed. The regime of operation appropriate for an ignition experiment is described. The various aspects of equilibrium, stability, transport, alpha containment, thermal runaway, alpha-induced modes, radiation emission, and plasma discharge transients are summarized. >

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/862/3169/00102434.pdf

Marshall N. Rosenbluth

Papers

Fusion physics study of the IGNITEX experiment