Modeling linear and nonlinear hyperlens structures

Subwavelength imaging [1-5] has been studied extensively in the past few years due to its great importance in many fields, ranging from the fundamental understanding of light propagation at the nanoscale to applications such as sensing, nanolithography, and microscopy. Moreover, studying and manipulating light on the nanoscale is of great importance to many different disciplines other than subwavelength imaging, with already a huge influence on communication [6, 7], security [8], and biosensing applications [9]. Conventional imaging systems are generally restricted by the diffraction limit [10] in free space, acting as a low-pass filter that inhibits transmission of spatial frequencies larger than 1/?. These spatial frequencies are evanescent in a homogeneous medium and 222therefore cannot contribute to the reconstruction of the image at the system’s output. Current modern methods overcome this limit using techniques such as near-field scanning with a subwavelength tip [11] or by randomly distributing fluorescent molecules on the sample and averaging over multiple exposures [12]. These solutions require scanning or repetitive experiments, thus limiting real-time applications.