Polarization independent planar silver superlens with switchable anisotropic layer

In this article, the imaging effect of planar silver superlens is quantitatively analyzed and the optimized structure that has the highest spatial resolution and contrast ratio is identified. To defeat the intrinsic restriction on the polarization direction of the illuminating light, we investigate a new structure of superlens that contains a switchable anisotropic layer. Simulation results show that the new superlens can achieve very good imaging result with both transverse electric polarized light when the switchable anisotropic layer is set at the anisotropic state and the transverse magnetic polarized light when the switchable anisotropic layer is set at the isotropic state. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52:809–812, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.25070