On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:09:16 -0400, Michael Coslo
wrote:

Fellows, try reading the original work rather than the boys from MENSA
comic book editions.

The original wasn't a whole lot more satisfying,(I almost thought it
was an abstract) but at least it didn't have the touchy feely science of
the Telegraph's report.

Hi Mike,

I'm accustomed to material dealing with evanescent waves. I've
alluded to them in other postings here where the wavelength and the
frequency of the energy do not follow classic conversions such as 1 =
f/t. Evanescent waves are one of but many of the energy transfer
mechanisms being turned into something useful at the nano-scale. The
original article cites work done in the audio spectrum ("Beating the
Sound Barrier"), but unless you are versed in the trade, you might
think in terms of Hz, KHz, or MHz. Instead, their region of acoustic
interest is in the THz.

Touchy-feely at the nano level is wholly different as it departs from
Newtonian rules, but doesn't quite delve into Quantum (a middle ground
of the curious where current flow is one electron at a time).

Anyway, back to antennas.

Another, related, "photonic" oddity is found in materials with
negative indices of refraction. Locally, Boeing has done some
investigation into it:
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers...gust/i_tt.html

This reveals a cube of artificial dielectric with a negative index. It
is also relegated to the microwaves for testing the concepts. I
designed models in EZNEC years ago, but quickly ran out of segments
for all but the simplest prisms.

A negative index of refraction gives you a lens that can focus to an
infinitely small spot (a must have for those doing photolithography in
the nano scale). The kicker is that the lens is flat. And, of
course, it bends rays backwards to expectations (backwards as in to
the other side of the normal, incidence; not reflection).

***** sucker bait follows *******

Now, if we were to split the cube diagonally and repeat the evanescent
mode, then maybe we could light up dark matter.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC