Overcoming the Diffraction Limit with a Planar Left-Handed Transmission-Line Lens

Abstract

We report experimental results at 1.057 GHz that demonstrate the ability of a planar left-handed lens, with a relative refractive index of $-1$, to form images that overcome the diffraction limit. The left-handed lens is a planar slab consisting of a grid of printed metallic strips over a ground plane, loaded with series capacitors ($C$) and shunt inductors ($L$). The measured half-power beamwidth of the point-source image formed by the left-handed lens is 0.21 effective wavelengths, which is significantly narrower than that of the diffraction-limited image corresponding to 0.36 wavelengths.