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Diffraction Limit Has Been Beaten

Posted by Hemos on from the moving-to-the-next-challenge dept.

deglr6328 writes "In what is being heralded variously as a "remarkable accomplishment" and a "breakthrough", physicists have reportedly beaten the diffraction limit at optical frequencies. First hypothesized to be possible 30 years ago by Russian physicist Victor Veselago, meta-material "superlenses" with negative refractive indices were first demonstrated around 2001 at microwave frequencies. The use of a thin silver film as an optical superlens in this case, has allowed the team to resolve features less than 40 nanometers wide; 10 times better than any conventional optical microscope. The consequences of the discovery are immediately apparent and include opportunities for extremely fine biomedical imaging in-vivo and greater increases in transistor density for microchips by superlens augmentation of photolithography masks."

4 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. You insensitive clods by Beautyon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    extremely fine biomedical imaging in-vivo and greater increases in transistor density for microchips by superlens augmentation of photolithography masks

    What about thinnner, lighter spectacle lenses for the 'Coke bottle' lens wearing, brunt of endless jokes myopic geeks?!

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    1. Re:You insensitive clods by orasio · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wear contacts.
      Very few people just can't wear contacts.
      For the rest, they are very cheap now (even in poor countries, where I live), because they are so much cheaper to manufacture.

      The vision is astounding, and of course, you lose that myopic super-ability of having ultra-vision for small things, but a magnifier does the job.

      If refuse to get rid of glasses as a fashion statement, or something like that, well, maybe the coke-bottle lenses are jujst a part of it.

  2. Satellite telescopes? by Markus+Registrada · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As I understand it, one of the reasons satellites can't read your credit card is because of the diffraction limit. Yes, you also have distortion caused by inhomogeneities in atmospheric density, but that's correctable with adaptive optics. Scattering by particulates isn't correctable, but there often isn't much there.

    Does this development mean that the main limit on satellite telescope resolution has fallen?

  3. Re:Hmmm. by amelagar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Um. Mirrors don't have diffraction.