Ideal optical antimatter using passive lossy materials under complex frequency excitation

Olivia Y. Long; Peter B. Catrysse; Seunghoon Han; Shanhui Fan

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02137-w

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Ideal optical antimatter using passive lossy materials under complex frequency excitation

Original Articles

- Ideal optical antimatter using passive lossy materials under complex frequency excitation
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 2, Pages: 611-619(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
  2.Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
  3.Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Samsung Electronics, Suwon-si, 16678, South Korea
  4.Semiconductor R&D Center, Samsung Electronics, Hwaseong-si, 18448, South Korea
  5.Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Author bio：
  
  Olivia Y. Long (olong@stanford.edu)
  Shanhui Fan (shanhui@stanford.edu)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02137-w
  CLC：
- Received：30 May 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-11-01，
  
  Accepted：14 November 2025，
  
  Online First：04 January 2026，
  
  Published：28 February 2026
- Accepted：
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Long, O. Y. et al. Ideal optical antimatter using passive lossy materials under complex frequency excitation. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 611-619 (2026).
DOI：

Long, O. Y. et al. Ideal optical antimatter using passive lossy materials under complex frequency excitation. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 611-619 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02137-w.

摘要

Abstract

The original concept of left-handed material has inspired the possibility of optical antimatter

where the effect of light propagation through a medium can be completely canceled by its complementary medium. Despite recent progress in the development of negative-index metamaterials

losses continue to be a significant barrier to realizing optical antimatter. In this work

we show that passive

lossy materials can be used to realize optical antimatter when illuminated by light at a complex frequency. We further establish that one can engineer arbitrary complex-valued permittivity and permeability in such materials. Strikingly

we show that materials with a positive index at real frequencies can act as negative-index materials under complex frequency excitation. Using our approach

we numerically demonstrate the optical antimatter functionality

as well as double focusing by an ideal perfect lens and superscattering. Our work demonstrates the power of temporally structured light in unlocking the promising opportunities of complementary media

which have until now been inhibited by material loss.

关键词

Keywords

references

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