Optic-null medium: realization and applications

Optic-null medium (ONM), an electromagnetic (EM) space representing optically nothing, has many interesting applications but is difficult to realize practically due to its extreme EM parameters. Here we demonstrate that a holey metallic plate with periodic array of subwavelength apertures can well mimic an ONM. We develop an effective-medium theory to extract the EM parameters of the designed ONM, and employ full-wave simulations to demonstrate its optical functionalities. Microwave experiments, in excellent agreement with full-wave simulations, are performed to illustrate several applications of the ONM, including the radiation cancellation effect and the hyperlensing effect. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America