Metamaterials Lens

We provide a novel approach to realizing negative index lenses and lenslet arrays at optical frequencies using a naturally occurring material such as cis-vitamin A, a constituent in some commercially available cod-liver oils. This form of vitamin A has been recently found in the eyes of lobsters and hypothesized to be responsible for negative index lensing in their superposition eyes. The proposed work will comprise devising simple experiments to determine propagation of light through a mixture of positive and negative index material, fabrication of lenses and lenslet arrays using a periodic deformable wire mesh, and evaluating these lenses using a novel z-scan technique recently developed for linear PLZT microlenses. In the process, we also aim to determine the role of possible chirality which may be responsible for the negative index in such biological materials. We also propose to use the method to determine the amount of negative index material in a mixture, which may be important in testing available forms of naturally occurring materials for their cis-vitamin A content, recently hypothesized to treat autism.