CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to and claims the benefit of the earliest available effective filing date(s) from the following listed application(s) (the â€œRelated Applicationsâ€ ) (e.g., claims earliest available priority dates for other than provisional patent applications or claims benefits under 35 USC Â§119(e) for provisional patent applications, for any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the Related Application(s)). Related Applications:

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/156,443, entitled FOCUSING AND SENSING APPARATUS, METHODS, AND SYSTEMS, naming Jeffrey A. Bowers, Roderick A. Hyde, Edward K. Y. Jung, John Brian Pendry, David Schurig, David R. Smith, Clarence T. Tegreene, Thomas A. Weaver, Charles Whitmer, and Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed May 30, 2008, which is currently co-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/214,534, entitled EMITTING AND FOCUSING APPARATUS, METHODS, AND SYSTEMS, naming Jeffrey A. Bowers, Roderick A. Hyde, Edward K. Y. Jung, John Brian Pendry, David Schurig, David R. Smith, Clarence T. Tegreene, Thomas A. Weaver, Charles Whitmer, and Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Jun. 18, 2008, which is currently co-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the present application constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. (NOT YET ASSIGNED), entitled EMITTING AND NEGATIVELY-REFRACTIVE FOCUSING APPARATUS, METHODS, AND SYSTEMS, naming Jeffrey A. Bowers, Roderick A. Hyde, Edward K. Y. Jung, John Brian Pendry, David Schurig, David R. Smith, Clarence T. Tegreene, Thomas A. Weaver, Charles Whitmer, and Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Jul. 25, 2008, which is currently co-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has published a notice to the effect that the USPTO's computer programs require that patent applicants reference both a serial number and indicate whether an application is a continuation or continuation-in-part. Stephen G. Kunin, Benefit of Prior-Filed Application, USPTO Official Gazette Mar. 18, 2003, available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/og/2003/week11/patbene.htm. The present Applicant Entity (hereinafter â€œApplicantâ€ ) has provided above a specific reference to the application(s) from which priority is being claimed as recited by statute. Applicant understands that the statute is unambiguous in its specific reference language and does not require either a serial number or any characterization, such as â€œcontinuationâ€ or â€œcontinuation-in-part,â€ for claiming priority to U.S. patent applications. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Applicant understands that the USPTO's computer programs have certain data entry requirements, and hence Applicant is designating the present application as a continuation-in-part of its parent applications as set forth above, but expressly points out that such designations are not to be construed in any way as any type of commentary and/or admission as to whether or not the present application contains any new matter in addition to the matter of its parent application(s).

All subject matter of the Related Applications and of any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the Related Applications is incorporated herein by reference to the extent such subject matter is not inconsistent herewith.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The application discloses apparatus, methods, and systems that may relate to electromagnetic responses that include negatively-refractive focusing and sensing of electromagnetic energy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 depicts a first configuration of a negatively-refractive focusing structure.

FIG. 2 depicts a first coordinate transformation.

FIG. 3 depicts a second configuration of a negatively-refractive focusing structure.

FIG. 4 depicts a second coordinate transformation.

FIG. 5 depicts a negatively-refractive focusing structure with an input surface region.

FIG. 6 depicts a first process flow.

FIG. 7 depicts a second process flow.

FIG. 8 depicts a system that includes a focusing unit and a controller.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here.

Transformation optics is an emerging field of electromagnetic engineering. Transformation optics devices include lenses that refract electromagnetic waves, where the refraction imitates the bending of light in a curved coordinate space (a â€œtransformationâ€ of a flat coordinate space), e.g. as described in A. J. Ward and J. B. Pendry, â€œRefraction and geometry in Maxwell's equations,â€ J. Mod. Optics 43, 773 (1996), J. B. Pendry and S. A. Ramakrishna, â€œFocusing light using negative refraction,â€ J. Phys. [Cond. Matt.] 15, 6345 (2003), D. Schurig et al, â€œCalculation of material properties and ray tracing in transformation media,â€ Optics Express 14, 9794 (2006) (â€œD. Schurig et al (1)â€ ), and in U. Leonhardt and T. G. Philbin, â€œGeneral relativity in electrical engineering,â€ New J. Phys. 8, 247 (2006), each of which is herein incorporated by reference. The use of the term â€œopticsâ€ does not imply any limitation with regards to wavelength; a transformation optics device may be operable in wavelength bands that range from radio wavelengths to visible wavelengths.

A first exemplary transformation optics device is the electromagnetic cloak that was described, simulated, and implemented, respectively, in J. B. Pendry et al, â€œControlling electromagnetic waves,â€ Science 312, 1780 (2006); S. A. Cummer et al, â€œFull-wave simulations of electromagnetic cloaking structures,â€ Phys. Rev. E 74, 036621 (2006); and D. Schurig et al, â€œMetamaterial electromagnetic cloak at microwave frequencies,â€ Science 314, 977 (2006) (â€œD. Schurig et al (2)â€ ); each of which is herein incorporated by reference. See also J. Pendry et al, â€œElectromagnetic cloaking method,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/459,728, herein incorporated by reference. For the electromagnetic cloak, the curved coordinate space is a transformation of a flat space that has been punctured and stretched to create a hole (the cloaked region), and this transformation corresponds to a set of constitutive parameters (electric permittivity and magnetic permeability) for a transformation medium wherein electromagnetic waves are refracted around the hole in imitation of the curved coordinate space.

A second exemplary transformation optics device is illustrated by embodiments of the electromagnetic compression structure described in J. B. Pendry, D. Schurig, and D. R. Smith, â€œElectromagnetic compression apparatus, methods, and systems,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/982,353; and in J. B. Pendry, D. Schurig, and D. R. Smith, â€œElectromagnetic compression apparatus, methods, and systems,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/069,170; each of which is herein incorporated by reference. In embodiments described therein, an electromagnetic compression structure includes a transformation medium with constitutive parameters corresponding to a coordinate transformation that compresses a region of space intermediate first and second spatial locations, the effective spatial compression being applied along an axis joining the first and second spatial locations. The electromagnetic compression structure thereby provides an effective electromagnetic distance between the first and second spatial locations greater than a physical distance between the first and second spatial locations.

A third exemplary transform optics device is illustrated by embodiments of the electromagnetic cloaking and/or translation structure described in J. T. Kare, â€œElectromagnetic cloaking apparatus, methods, and systems,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/074,247; and in J. T. Kare, â€œElectromagnetic cloaking apparatus, methods, and systems,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/074,248; each of which is herein incorporated by reference. In embodiments described therein, an electromagnetic translation structure includes a transformation medium that provides an apparent location of an electromagnetic transducer different then an actual location of the electromagnetic transducer, where the transformation medium has constitutive parameters corresponding to a coordinate transformation that maps the actual location to the apparent location. Alternatively or additionally, embodiments include an electromagnetic cloaking structure operable to divert electromagnetic radiation around an obstruction in a field of regard of the transducer (and the obstruction can be another transducer).

Additional exemplary transformation optics devices are described in D. Schurig et al, â€œTransformation-designed optical elements,â€ Opt. Exp. 15, 14772 (2007); M. Rahm et al, â€œOptical design of reflectionless complex media by finite embedded coordinate transformations,â€ Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 063903 (2008); and A. Kildishev and V. Shalaev, â€œEngineering space for light via transformation optics,â€ Opt. Lett. 33, 43 (2008); each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

In general, for a selected coordinate transformation, a transformation medium can be identified wherein electromagnetic waves refract as if propagating in a curved coordinate space corresponding to the selected coordinate transformation. Constitutive parameters of the transformation medium can be obtained from the equations:

{tilde over (Îµ)}^{iâ€²,jâ€²}=|det(Î›)|^âˆ’1Î›_i^iâ€²Î›_j^jâ€²Îµ^ijâ€ƒâ€ƒ(1)

{tilde over (Î¼)}^{iâ€²jâ€²}=|det(Î›)|^âˆ’1Î›_i^iâ€²Î›_j^jâ€²Î¼^ijâ€ƒâ€ƒ(2)

where {tilde over (Îµ)} and {tilde over (Î¼)} are the permittivity and permeability tensors of the transformation medium, Îµ and Î¼ are the permittivity and permeability tensors of the original medium in the untransformed coordinate space, and

$\begin{matrix} {Î›}_{i}^{i^{â€²}} = \frac{âˆ‚ x^{i^{â€²}}}{âˆ‚ x^{i}} & (3) \end{matrix}$

is the Jacobian matrix corresponding to the coordinate transformation. In some applications, the coordinate transformation is a one-to-one mapping of locations in the untransformed coordinate space to locations in the transformed coordinate space, and in other applications the coordinate transformation is a one-to-many mapping of locations in the untransformed coordinate space to locations in the transformed coordinate space. Some coordinate transformations, such as one-to-many mappings, may correspond to a transformation medium having a negative index of refraction. In some applications, only selected matrix elements of the permittivity and permeability tensors need satisfy equations (1) and (2), e.g. where the transformation optics response is for a selected polarization only. In other applications, a first set of permittivity and permeability matrix elements satisfy equations (1) and (2) with a first Jacobian A, corresponding to a first transformation optics response for a first polarization of electromagnetic waves, and a second set of permittivity and permeability matrix elements, orthogonal (or otherwise complementary) to the first set of matrix elements, satisfy equations (1) and (2) with a second Jacobian Î›â€², corresponding to a second transformation optics response for a second polarization of electromagnetic waves. In yet other applications, reduced parameters are used that may not satisfy equations (1) and (2), but preserve products of selected elements in (1) and selected elements in (2), thus preserving dispersion relations inside the transformation medium (see, for example, D. Schurig et al (2), supra, and W. Cai et al, â€œOptical cloaking with metamaterials,â€ Nature Photonics 1, 224 (2007), herein incorporated by reference). Reduced parameters can be used, for example, to substitute a magnetic response for an electric response, or vice versa. While reduced parameters preserve dispersion relations inside the transformation medium (so that the ray or wave trajectories inside the transformation medium are unchanged from those of equations (1) and (2)), they may not preserve impedance characteristics of the transformation medium, so that rays or waves incident upon a boundary or interface of the transformation medium may sustain reflections (whereas in general a transformation medium according to equations (1) and (2) is substantially nonreflective). The reflective or scattering characteristics of a transformation medium with reduced parameters can be substantially reduced or eliminated by a suitable choice of coordinate transformation, e.g. by selecting a coordinate transformation for which the corresponding Jacobian A (or a subset of elements thereof) is continuous or substantially continuous at a boundary or interface of the transformation medium (see, for example, W. Cai et al, â€œNonmagnetic cloak with minimized scattering,â€ Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 111105 (2007), herein incorporated by reference).

In general, constitutive parameters (such as permittivity and permeability) of a medium responsive to an electromagnetic wave can vary with respect to a frequency of the electromagnetic wave (or equivalently, with respect to a wavelength of the electromagnetic wave in vacuum or in a reference medium). Thus, a medium can have constitutive parameters Îµ₁, Î¼₁, etc. at a first frequency, and constitutive parameters Îµ₂, Î¼₂, etc. at a second frequency; and so on for a plurality of constitutive parameters at a plurality of frequencies. In the context of a transformation medium, constitutive parameters at a first frequency can provide a first response to electromagnetic waves at the first frequency, corresponding to a first selected coordinate transformation, and constitutive parameters at a second frequency can provide a second response to electromagnetic waves at the second frequency, corresponding to a second selected coordinate transformation; and so on: a plurality of constitutive parameters at a plurality of frequencies can provide a plurality of responses to electromagnetic waves corresponding to a plurality of coordinate transformations. In some embodiments the first response at the first frequency is substantially nonzero (i.e. one or both of Îµ₁and Î¼₁is substantially non-unity), corresponding to a nontrivial coordinate transformation, and a second response at a second frequency is substantially zero (i.e. Îµ₂and Î¼₂are substantially unity), corresponding to a trivial coordinate transformation (i.e. a coordinate transformation that leaves the coordinates unchanged); thus, electromagnetic waves at the first frequency are refracted (substantially according to the nontrivial coordinate transformation), and electromagnetic waves at the second frequency are substantially nonrefracted. Constitutive parameters of a medium can also change with time (e.g. in response to an external input or control signal), so that the response to an electromagnetic wave can vary with respect to frequency and/or time. Some embodiments may exploit this variation with frequency and/or time to provide respective frequency and/or time multiplexing/demultiplexing of electromagnetic waves. Thus, for example, a transformation medium can have a first response at a frequency at time t₁, corresponding to a first selected coordinate transformation, and a second response at the same frequency at time t₂, corresponding to a second selected coordinate transformation. As another example, a transformation medium can have a response at a first frequency at time t₁, corresponding to a selected coordinate transformation, and substantially the same response at a second frequency at time t₂. In yet another example, a transformation medium can have, at time t₁, a first response at a first frequency and a second response at a second frequency, whereas at time t₂, the responses are switched, i.e., the second response (or a substantial equivalent thereof) is at the first frequency and the first response (or a substantial equivalent thereof) is at the second frequency. The second response can be a zero or substantially zero response. Other embodiments that utilize frequency and/or time dependence of the transformation medium will be apparent to one of skill in the art.

Constitutive parameters such as those of equations (1) and (2) (or reduced parameters derived therefrom) can be realized using artificially-structured materials. Generally speaking, the electromagnetic properties of artificially-structured materials derive from their structural configurations, rather than or in addition to their material composition.

In some embodiments, the artificially-structured materials are photonic crystals. Some exemplary photonic crystals are described in J. D. Joannopoulos et al, Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light, 2^ndEdition, Princeton Univ. Press, 2008, herein incorporated by reference. In photonic crystals, photonic dispersion relations and/or photonic band gaps are engineered by imposing a spatially-varying pattern on an electromagnetic material (e.g. a conducting, magnetic, or dielectric material) or a combination of electromagnetic materials. The photonic dispersion relations translate to effective constitutive parameters (e.g. permittivity, permeability, index of refraction) for the photonic crystal. The spatially-varying pattern is typically periodic, quasi-periodic, or colloidal periodic, with a length scale comparable to an operating wavelength of the photonic crystal.

In other embodiments, the artificially-structured materials are metamaterials. Some exemplary metamaterials are described in R. A. Hyde et al, â€œVariable metamaterial apparatus,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/355,493; D. Smith et al, â€œMetamaterials,â€ International Application No. PCT/US2005/026052; D. Smith et al, â€œMetamaterials and negative refractive index,â€ Science 305, 788 (2004); D. Smith et al, â€œIndefinite materials,â€ U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/525,191; C. Caloz and T. Itoh, Electromagnetic Metamaterials: Transmission Line Theory and Microwave Applications, Wiley-Interscience, 2006; N. Engheta and R. W. Ziolkowski, eds., Metamaterials: Physics and Engineering Explorations, Wiley-Interscience, 2006; and A. K. Sarychev and V. M. Shalaev, Electrodynamics of Metamaterials, World Scientific, 2007; each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Metamaterials generally feature subwavelength elements, i.e. structural elements with portions having electromagnetic length scales smaller than an operating wavelength of the metamaterial, and the subwavelength elements have a collective response to electromagnetic radiation that corresponds to an effective continuous medium response, characterized by an effective permittivity, an effective permeability, an effective magnetoelectric coefficient, or any combination thereof. For example, the electromagnetic radiation may induce charges and/or currents in the subwavelength elements, whereby the subwavelength elements acquire nonzero electric and/or magnetic dipole moments. Where the electric component of the electromagnetic radiation induces electric dipole moments, the metamaterial has an effective permittivity; where the magnetic component of the electromagnetic radiation induces magnetic dipole moments, the metamaterial has an effective permeability; and where the electric (magnetic) component induces magnetic (electric) dipole moments (as in a chiral metamaterial), the metamaterial has an effective magnetoelectric coefficient. Some metamaterials provide an artificial magnetic response; for example, split-ring resonators (SRRs)â€”or other LC or plasmonic resonatorsâ€”built from nonmagnetic conductors can exhibit an effective magnetic permeability (c.f. J. B. Pendry et al, â€œMagnetism from conductors and enhanced nonlinear phenomena,â€ IEEE Trans. Micro. Theo. Tech. 47, 2075 (1999), herein incorporated by reference). Some metamaterials have â€œhybridâ€ electromagnetic properties that emerge partially from structural characteristics of the metamaterial, and partially from intrinsic properties of the constituent materials. For example, G. Dewar, â€œA thin wire array and magnetic host structure with n<0,â€ J. Appl. Phys. 97, 10Q101 (2005), herein incorporated by reference, describes a metamaterial consisting of a wire array (exhibiting a negative permeability as a consequence of its structure) embedded in a nonconducting ferrimagnetic host medium (exhibiting an intrinsic negative permeability). Metamaterials can be designed and fabricated to exhibit selected permittivities, permeabilities, and/or magnetoelectric coefficients that depend upon material properties of the constituent materials as well as shapes, chiralities, configurations, positions, orientations, and couplings between the subwavelength elements. The selected permittivites, permeabilities, and/or magnetoelectric coefficients can be positive or negative, complex (having loss or gain), anisotropic, variable in space (as in a gradient index lens), variable in time (e.g. in response to an external or feedback signal), variable in frequency (e.g. in the vicinity of a resonant frequency of the metamaterial), or any combination thereof. The selected electromagnetic properties can be provided at wavelengths that range from radio wavelengths to infrared/visible wavelengths; the latter wavelengths are attainable, e.g., with nanostructured materials such as nanorod pairs or nano-fishnet structures (c.f. S. Linden et al, â€œPhotonic metamaterials: Magnetism at optical frequencies,â€ IEEE J. Select. Top. Quant. Elect. 12, 1097 (2006) and V. Shalaev, â€œOptical negative-index metamaterials,â€ Nature Photonics 1, 41 (2007), both herein incorporated by reference). An example of a three-dimensional metamaterial at optical frequencies, an elongated-split-ring â€œwoodpileâ€ structure, is described in M. S. Rill et al, â€œPhotonic metamaterials by direct laser writing and silver chemical vapour deposition,â€ Nature Materials advance online publication, May 11, 2008, (doi:10.1038/nmat2197).

While many exemplary metamaterials are described as including discrete elements, some implementations of metamaterials may include non-discrete elements or structures. For example, a metamaterial may include elements comprised of sub-elements, where the sub-elements are discrete structures (such as split-ring resonators, etc.), or the metamaterial may include elements that are inclusions, exclusions, layers, or other variations along some continuous structure (e.g. etchings on a substrate). Some examples of layered metamaterials include: a structure consisting of alternating doped/intrinsic semiconductor layers (cf. A. J. Hoffman, â€œNegative refraction in semiconductor metamaterials,â€ Nature Materials 6, 946 (2007), herein incorporated by reference), and a structure consisting of alternating metal/dielectric layers (cf. A. Salandrino and N. Engheta, â€œFar-field subdiffraction optical microscopy using metamaterial crystals: Theory and simulations,â€ Phys. Rev. B 74, 075103 (2006); and Z. Jacob et al, â€œOptical hyperlens: Far-field imaging beyond the diffraction limit,â€ Opt. Exp. 14, 8247 (2006); each of which is herein incorporated by reference). The metamaterial may include extended structures having distributed electromagnetic responses (such as distributed inductive responses, distributed capacitive responses, and distributed inductive-capacitive responses). Examples include structures consisting of loaded and/or interconnected transmission lines (such as microstrips and striplines), artificial ground plane structures (such as artificial perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) surfaces and electromagnetic band gap (EGB) surfaces), and interconnected/extended nanostructures (nano-fishnets, elongated SRR woodpiles, etc.).

With reference now to FIG. 1, an illustrative embodiment is depicted that includes a negatively-refractive focusing structure 110. This and other drawings, unless context dictates otherwise, can represent a planar view of a three-dimensional embodiment, or a two-dimensional embodiment (e.g. in FIG. 1 where the structures are positioned inside a metallic or dielectric slab waveguide oriented normal to the page). The negatively-refractive focusing structure receives and negatively refracts electromagnetic energy, depicted as solid rays 102 (the use of a ray description, in FIG. 1 and elsewhere, is a heuristic convenience for purposes of visual illustration, and is not intended to connote any limitations or assumptions of geometrical optics; further, the elements depicted in FIG. 1 can have spatial dimensions that are variously less than, greater than, or comparable to a wavelength of interest). The negatively-refracted electromagnetic energy converges towards an interior focusing region 120 positioned inside the negatively-refractive focusing structure 110; in this example, the interior focusing region 120 is depicted as a slab having a thickness equal an axial extent 122 of the interior focusing region. The axial extent 122 corresponds to an axial direction indicated by the axial unit vector 160, with transverse unit vectors 161 and 162 defined perpendicular thereto. In FIG. 1, the electromagnetic energy radiates from exemplary electromagnetic sources 101 in an exterior field region 130, the exterior field region being positioned outside the negatively-refractive focusing structure. In this example, the exterior field region 130 is depicted as a slab having a thickness equal to an axial extent 132 of the exterior field region. The electromagnetic sources 101 in the exterior field region correspond to electromagnetic images 103 in the interior focusing region. The axial extent 122 of the interior focusing region (spanned, in this example, by the electromagnetic images 103) exceeds the axial extent 132 of the exterior field region (spanned, in this example, by the electromagnetic sources 101), thus demonstrating that the negatively-refractive focusing structure provides an axial magnification greater than one, and in this example the axial magnification corresponds to a ratio of the axial extent of the interior focusing region to the axial extent of the exterior field region. Embodiments optionally include one or more electromagnetic sensors (schematically depicted as ellipses 150) positioned within the interior focusing region (in the presented illustrative representation, sensors are linearly positioned along the axial extent 122 of the interior focusing region, but this is not intended to be limiting).

In general, embodiments provide a negatively-refractive focusing structure having an interior focusing region and an exterior field region; electromagnetic energy that radiates from the exterior field region, and couples to the negatively-refractive focusing structure, is subsequently substantially concentrated in the interior focusing region. For example, in some applications each object point in the exterior field region defines a point spread function and a corresponding enclosed energy region (e.g. a region wherein some selected fractionâ€”such as 50%, 75%, or 90%â€”of electromagnetic energy that radiates from the object point is concentrated), and the interior focusing region is a union of the enclosed energy regions for the object points that compose the exterior field region. The negatively-refractive focusing structure provides an axial magnification, and in some applications the axial magnification corresponds to a ratio where the divisor is an axial separation between first and second object points and the dividend is an axial separation between centroids of first and second point spread functions corresponding to the first and second object points. In some embodiments, the interior focusing region may be a planar or substantially planar slab (e.g. 120 in FIG. 1) having a slab thickness providing the axial extent of the interior focusing region (e.g. 122 in FIG. 1). In other embodiments, the interior focusing region may be a non-planar slab-like region, e.g. a cylindrically-, spherically-, ellipsoidally-, or otherwise-curved slab having a slab thickness providing the axial extent of the interior focusing region. In other embodiments, the interior focusing region may be neither planar nor slab-like. In some embodiments the negatively-refractive focusing structure defines an optical axis as a symmetry or central axis of the negatively-refractive focusing structure, and the optical axis provides an axial direction, with transverse directions defined perpendicular thereto. More generally, one may define an axial direction corresponding to an axial extent of the interior focusing region, with transverse directions defined perpendicular thereto. This is consistent with FIG. 1, where the interior focusing region is a planar slab, and the axial direction corresponds to a unit vector normal to the slab. Where the interior focusing region is curved, the axial direction can vary along the transverse extent of the focusing region. For example, where the interior focusing region is a cylindrically- or spherically-curved slab, the axial direction corresponds to a radius unit vector (and the transverse directions correspond to height/azimuth unit vectors or azimuth/zenith unit vectors, respectively); where the interior focusing region is an otherwise-curved slab, the axial direction corresponds to a vector locally normal to the slab surface (and the transverse directions correspond to orthogonal unit vectors locally tangent to the slab surface).

In some embodiments a negatively-refractive focusing structure, such as that depicted in FIG. 1, includes a transformation medium. For example, the ray trajectories 102 in FIG. 1 correspond to a coordinate transformation that is multiple-valued and includes both a coordinate inversion and a uniform spatial dilation along the axial direction 160 (within the axial extent of the negatively-refractive focusing structure 110); this coordinate transformation can be used to identify constitutive parameters for a corresponding transformation medium (e.g. as provided in equations (1) and (2), or reduced parameters obtained therefrom) that responds to electromagnetic radiation as in FIG. 1. Explicitly, for the example of FIG. 1, defining z as an untransformed axial coordinate and zâ€² as a transformed axial coordinate (where the axial coordinates are measured along the axial direction 160), the multiple-valued coordinate transformation is depicted in FIG. 2, with first, second,, and third branches 201, 202, and 203 corresponding to functions zâ€²=f₁(z), zâ€²=f₂(z), and zâ€²=f₃(z), respectively. The first branch 201 is an identity transformation (f₁(z)=z) and maps an untransformed coordinate region 220 to the exterior field region 130. The second branch 202 includes an axial coordinate inversion and a uniform axial coordinate dilation, and maps the untransformed coordinate region 220 to the interior focusing region 120. The third branch 203 is a shifted itentity transformation (f₃(z)=z+C, where C is a constant). The figure also indicates the axial extent of the negatively-refractive focusing structure 110 on the zâ€²-axis (coinciding, in this example, with the range of the second branch 202). On the second branch, defining a scale factor

$\begin{matrix} s = \frac{ï Œ z^{â€²}}{ï Œ z} = f_{2}^{â€²} î¢ (z), & (4) \end{matrix}$

the example of FIGS. 1-2 presents a constant negative scale factor s<âˆ’1 within the negatively-refractive focusing structure 110, corresponding to a coordinate inversion (whereby s<0 ) and a uniform spatial dilation (whereby |s|>1; in some instances within this document, as shall be apparent to one of skill in the art, the use of the term â€œscale factor,â€ when used in the context of a spatial dilation, may refer to the absolute value of a negative scale factor such as described here). Supposing that the negatively-refractive focusing structure is surrounded by an ambient isotropic medium with constitutive parameters Îµ^ij=ÎµÎ´^ij, Î¼^ij=Î¼Î´^ij(where Î´^ijdenotes the Kronecker delta-function, with Î´^ij=1 for i=j and Î´^ij=0 for iâ‰ j), the constitutive parameters of the transformation medium are obtained from equations (1) and (2) and are given by (in a basis with unit vectors 161, 162, and 160, respectively, in FIG. 1)

$\begin{matrix} \tilde{É›} = (\begin{matrix} s^{- 1} & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & s^{- 1} & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & s \end{matrix}) î¢ž É›, \tilde{Î¼} = (\begin{matrix} s^{- 1} & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & s^{- 1} & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & s \end{matrix}) î¢ž Î¼ . & (5) \end{matrix}$

Thus, the uniform spatial dilation of FIGS. 1-2 corresponds to a transformation medium that is a uniform uniaxial medium. Moreover, the scale factor is negative, so that the constitutive parameters in equation (5) are negative, and the transformation medium is a negatively-refractive medium defining a negative index of refraction.

In some embodiments, the negatively-refractive focusing structure includes a transformation medium that provides a non-uniform spatial dilation. An example is depicted in FIG. 3 and the corresponding multiple-valued coordinate transformation is depicted in FIG. 4. In FIG. 3, as in FIG. 1, a negatively-refractive focusing structure 110 provides an interior focusing region 120 for electromagnetic energy that radiates from an exterior field region 130. In contrast to FIG. 1, however, the embodiment of FIG. 3 provides a non-uniform scale factor s (the slope of the mapping function zâ€²=f₂(z) for the second branch 202 of the multiple-valued coordinate transformation); indeed, the scale factor in this relation satisfies, in some interval(s), the relation âˆ’1<s<0 (corresponding to a local spatial compression and coordinate inversion), and in other interval(s), the relation s<âˆ’1 (corresponding to a local spatial dilation and coordinate inversion). The constitutive relations are again given by equations (5), where s is variable in the axial direction, and the transformation medium is a non-uniform uniaxial medium (again with negative constitutive parameters and defining a negative index of refraction).

More generally, embodiments of a negatively-refractive focusing structure, operable to provide an interior focusing region for electromagnetic energy that radiates from an exterior field region, may comprise a transformation medium, the transformation medium corresponding to a multiple-valued coordinate transformation that maps an untransformed region to the exterior field region, and further maps the untransformed region to the interior focusing region; and the constitutive relations of this transformation medium may be implemented with an artificially-structured material (such as a metamaterial), as described previously. In some embodiments, the coordinate transformation includes a coordinate inversion and spatial dilation along an axial direction of the interior focusing region, and a scale factor of the spatial dilation (within the interior focusing region) may correspond to a ratio of an axial extent of the interior focusing region to an axial extent of the exterior field region. This is consistent with FIGS. 2 and 4, where the slope triangle 200, indicating a scale factor in the interior focusing region, is similar or substantially similar to a triangle with a base 220 (equal to 130, for a first branch 201 that is an identity transformation) and a height 120. Just as the axial direction can vary along a transverse extent of the interior focusing region, the direction of the coordinate inversion/dilation can vary as well. Thus, for example, a substantially cylindrically- or spherically-curved interior focusing region may correspond to a (uniform or non-uniform) inversion/dilation of a cylindrical or spherical radius coordinate; a substantially ellipsoidally-curved interior focusing region may correspond to a (uniform or non-uniform) inversion/dilation of a confocal ellipsoidal coordinate; etc.

The negatively-refractive focusing structure 110 is depicted in FIGS. 1 and 3 as a planar slab, but this is a schematic illustration and is not intended to be limiting. In various embodiments the negatively-refractive focusing structure can be a cylindrically-, spherically-, or ellipsoidally-curved slab, or any other slab- or non-slab-like structure configured to provide an interior focusing region for negatively-refracted electromagnetic energy with an axial magnification substantially greater than one. Some embodiments, such as that depicted in FIG. 5, define an input surface region 510 as a surface region of the negatively-refractive focusing structure 110 that receives electromagnetic radiation from an adjacent region 500, and this input surface region may be substantially nonreflective of the received electromagnetic radiation. For example, where the negatively-refractive focusing structure is a transformation medium, equations (1) and (2) generally provide a medium that is substantially nonreflective. More generally, the input surface region may be substantially nonreflective by virtue of a substantial impedance-matching to the adjacent region. With impedance-matching, a wave impedance of the input surface region is substantially equal to a wave impedance of the adjacent region. The wave impedance of an isotropic medium is

$\begin{matrix} Z_{0} = \sqrt{\frac{Î¼}{É›}} & (6) \end{matrix}$

while the wave impedance of a generally anisotropic medium is a tensor quantity, e.g. as defined in L. M. Barkovskii and G. N. Borzdov, â€œThe impedance tensor for electromagnetic waves in anisotropic media,â€ J. Appl. Spect. 20, 836 (1974) (herein incorporated by reference). In some embodiments an impedance-matching is a substantial matching of every matrix element of the wave impedance tensor (i.e. to provide a substantially nonreflective interface for all incident polarizations); in other embodiments an impedance-matching is a substantial matching of only selected matrix elements of the wave impedance tensor (e.g. to provide a substantially nonreflective interface for a selected polarization only). In some embodiments, the adjacent region defines a permittivity Îµ₁and a permeability Î¼₁, where either or both parameters may be substantially unity or substantially non-unity; the input surface region defines a permittivity Îµ₂and a permeability Î¼₂, where either or both parameters may be substantially unity or substantially non-unity; and the impedance-matching condition implies

$\begin{matrix} \frac{{É›}_{2}}{{É›}_{1}} â‰\dots \frac{{Î¼}_{2}}{{Î¼}_{1}} & (7) \end{matrix}$

where Îµ₂and Î¼₂may be tensor quantities. Defining a surface normal direction and a surface parallel direction (e.g. depicted as elements 521 and 522, respectively, in FIG. 5), some embodiments provide a input surface region that defines: a surface normal permittivity Îµ₂^âŠ¥ corresponding to the surface normal direction and a surface parallel permittivity E₂^âˆ¥ corresponding to the surface parallel direction; and/or a surface normal permeability Î¼₂^âŠ¥ corresponding to the surface normal direction and a surface parallel permeability Î¼₂^âˆ¥ corresponding to the surface parallel direction; and the impedance-matching condition may imply (in addition to equation (7)) one or both of the following conditions:

$\begin{matrix} \frac{{É›}_{2}^{âŠ¥}}{{É›}_{1}} â‰\dots \frac{{É›}_{1}}{{É›}_{2}^{ï˜ƒ ï˜„}}, \frac{{Î¼}_{2}^{âŠ¥}}{{Î¼}_{1}} â‰\dots \frac{{Î¼}_{1}}{{Î¼}_{2}^{ï˜ƒ ï˜„}} . & (8) \end{matrix}$

Where the input surface region is a curved surface region (e.g. as in FIG. 5), the surface normal direction and the surface parallel direction can vary with position along the input surface region.

Some embodiments provide one or more electromagnetic sensors positioned within the interior focusing region of the negatively-refractive focusing structure. In general, electromagnetic sensors, such as those depicted FIG. 1 and in other embodiments, are electromagnetic devices having a detectable response to received or absorbed electromagnetic energy. Electromagnetic sensors can include antennas (such as wire/loop antennas, horn antennas, reflector antennas, patch antennas, phased array antennas, etc.), solid-state photodetectors (such as photodiodes, CCDs, and photoresistors), vacuum photodetectors (such as phototubes and photomultipliers) chemical photodetectors (such as photographic emulsions), cryogenic photodetectors (such as bolometers), photoluminescent detectors (such as phosphor powders or fluorescent dyes/markers), MEMS detectors (such as microcantilever arrays with electromagnetically responsive materials or elements) or any other devices operable to detect and/or transduce electromagnetic energy. Some embodiments include a plurality of electromagnetic sensors positioned within the interior focusing region. A first example is a multiplet of sensors operable at a corresponding multiplet of wavelengths or wavelength bands, i.e. a first sensor operable at a first wavelength/wavelength band, a second sensor operable at a second wavelength/wavelength band, etc. A second example is a focal plane array of sensors or sensor multiplets (e.g. a Bayer or Foveon sensor). A third example is a phased array of antennas. The plurality of sensors can be axially distributed (as in FIG. 1); for example, the axial extent of the interior focusing region may admit a plurality of parallel focal plane sensor arrays.

In some embodiments the negatively-refractive focusing structure provides an interior focusing region with an axial magnification substantially greater than one for electromagnetic energy at a selected frequency/frequency band and/or a selected polarization. The selected frequency or frequency band may be selected from a range that includes radio frequencies, microwave frequencies, millimeter- or submillimeter-wave frequencies, THz-wave frequencies, optical frequencies (e.g. variously corresponding to soft x-rays, extreme ultraviolet, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, infrared, or far infrared light), etc. The selected polarization may be a particular TE polarization (e.g. where the electric field is in a particular direction transverse to the axial direction, as with s-polarized electromagnetic energy), a particular TM polarization (e.g. where the magnetic field is in a particular direction transverse to the axial direction, as with p-polarized electromagnetic energy), a circular polarization, etc. (other embodiments provide an interior focusing region with an axial magnification substantially greater than one that is substantially the same interior focusing region with substantially the same axial magnification for any polarization of electromagnetic energy, e.g. for unpolarized electromagnetic energy).

In other embodiments the negatively-refractive focusing structure provides a first interior focusing region with a first axial magnification substantially greater than one for electromagnetic energy at a first frequency, and a second interior focusing region with a second axial magnification substantially greater than one for electromagnetic energy at a second frequency. The first axial magnification may be different than or substantially equal to the first axial magnification, and the first and second interior focusing regions may be substantially (or completely) non-overlapping, partially overlapping or substantially (or completely) overlapping. For embodiments that recite first and second frequencies, the first and second frequencies may be selected from the frequency categories in the preceding paragraph. Moreover, for these embodiments, the recitation of first and second frequencies may generally be replaced by a recitation of first and second frequency bands, again selected from the above frequency categories. These embodiments providing a negatively-refractive focusing structure operable at first and second frequencies may include a transformation medium having an adjustable response to electromagnetic radiation. For example, the transformation medium may have a response to electromagnetic radiation that is adjustable (e.g. in response to an external input or control signal) between a first response and a second response, the first response providing the first interior focusing region for electromagnetic energy at the first frequency, and the second response providing the second interior focusing region for electromagnetic energy at the second frequency. A transformation medium with an adjustable electromagnetic response may be implemented with variable metamaterials, e.g. as described in R. A. Hyde et al, supra. Other embodiments of a negatively-refractive focusing structure operable at first and second frequencies may include transformation medium having a frequency-dependent response to electromagnetic radiation, corresponding to frequency-dependent constitutive parameters. For example, the frequency-dependent response at a first frequency may provide a first interior focusing region for electromagnetic energy at the first frequency, and the frequency-dependent response at a second frequency may provide second interior focusing region for electromagnetic energy at the second frequency. A transformation medium having a frequency-dependent response to electromagnetic radiation can be implemented with artificially-structured materials such as metamaterials; for example, a first set of metamaterial elements having a response at the first frequency may be interleaved with a second set of metamaterial elements having a response at the second frequency.

An illustrative embodiment is depicted as a process flow diagram in FIG. 6. Flow 600 includes operation 610â€”negatively refracting an electromagnetic wave at a surface region, the surface region defining a surface normal direction. For example, a negatively-refractive focusing structure, such as that depicted as element 110 in FIG. 5, may include an input surface region 510 that negatively refracts electromagnetic energy incident upon the input surface region from an adjacent region, and the negatively-refractive focusing structure may include a transformation medium that provides a coordinate inversion (for a coordinate corresponding to a direction normal to the surface, e.g. the direction 521 in FIG. 5), the coordinate inversion corresponding to a negatively-refractive response of the transformation medium. Flow 600 further includes operation 620â€”spatially dilating the refracted electromagnetic wave along a dilation direction, the dilation direction corresponding to the surface normal direction. For example, a negatively-refractive focusing structure, such as that depicted as element 110 in FIGS. 1 and 3, may spatially dilate refracted electromagnetic energy 102 along an axial direction (e.g. the direction 160 in FIGS. 1 and 3) to provide an axial extent of an interior focusing region 120 greater than an axial extent of an exterior field region 130 (the ratio of axial extents corresponding to a provided axial magnification), and the negatively-refractive focusing structure may include a transformation medium that provides a coordinate dilation (for an axial coordinate corresponding to the axial direction 160), the coordinate dilation having a scale factor corresponding to the provided axial magnification. Operation 620 optionally includes sub-operation 622â€”spatially dilating a first component of the refracted electromagnetic wave at a first frequency along the dilation directionâ€”and sub-operation 624â€”spatially dilating a second component of the refracted electromagnetic wave at a second frequency along the dilation direction. For example, a negatively-refractive focusing structure may provide a first interior focusing region with a first axial magnification for electromagnetic energy at a first frequency and a second interior focusing region with a second axial magnification for electromagnetic energy at a second frequency, where the second axial magnification may be different than or substantially equal to the first axial magnification; and this negatively-refractive focusing structure operable at first and second frequencies may include a transformation medium having an adjustable response to electromagnetic radiation, or a transformation medium having a frequency-dependent response to electromagnetic radiation. Flow 600 optionally includes operation 630â€”sensing the electromagnetic wave at one or more locations within a focusing region that is provided by the negatively refracting and the spatially dilating. For example, a negatively-refractive focusing structure 110, such as that depicted in FIGS. 1 and 3, may provide an interior focusing region 120, and one or more electromagnetic sensors, such as those depicted as elements 150 in FIG. 1, may be positioned within the interior focusing region to detect/receive/absorb the electromagnetic energy 102.

Another illustrative embodiment is depicted as a process flow diagram in FIG. 7. Flow 700 includes operation 710â€”determining electromagnetic parameters that define a negative refractive index in a spatial region, the electromagnetic parameters providing an axial magnification substantially greater than one for an interior focusing region within the spatial region. For example, the spatial region may be a volume that encloses a negatively-refractive focusing structure, such as that depicted as element 110 in FIGS. 1 and 3, and the determined electromagnetic parameters may be the electromagnetic parameters of the negatively-refractive focusing structure. The negatively-refractive focusing structure may include a transformation medium, where the determined electromagnetic parameters satisfy or substantially satisfy equations (1) and (2), as described above; or, the determined electromagnetic parameters may be reduced parameters (as discussed earlier) where the corresponding non-reduced parameters satisfy equations (1) and (2). In some embodiments, the determining of the electromagnetic parameters includes: determining a coordinate transformation (such as those depicted in FIGS. 2 and 4); then determining electromagnetic parameters for a corresponding transformation medium (e.g. with equations (1) and (2)); then, optionally, reducing the electromagnetic parameters (e.g. to at least partially substitute a magnetic response for an electromagnetic response, or vice versa, as discussed above). Operation 710 optionally includes sub-operation 712â€”for electromagnetic waves at a first frequency, determining a first subset of the electromagnetic parameters providing a first axial magnification substantially greater than one for a first interior focusing subregion within the interior focusing region-and sub-operation 714â€”for electromagnetic waves at a second frequency, determining a second subset of the electromagnetic parameters providing a second axial magnification substantially greater than one for a second interior focusing subregion within the interior focusing region. For example, the determined electromagnetic parameters may be the electromagnetic parameters of a negatively-refractive focusing structure providing a first interior focusing region with a first axial magnification for electromagnetic energy at a first frequency and a second interior focusing region with a second axial magnification for electromagnetic energy at a second frequency. The negatively-refractive focusing structure may include a transformation medium having an adjustable response to electromagnetic radiation, e.g. adjustable between a first response, corresponding to the first subset of the electromagnetic parameters, and a second response, corresponding to the second subset of the electromagnetic parameters. Or, the negatively-refractive focusing structure may include a transformation medium having a frequency-dependent response to electromagnetic radiation, corresponding to frequency-dependent constitutive parameters, so that the first and second subsets of the electromagnetic parameters are values of the frequency-dependent constitutive parameters at the first and second frequencies, respectively. Flow 700 optionally further includes operation 720â€”selecting one or more positions of one or more electromagnetic sensors within the spatial region. For example, electromagnetic sensors may be positioned in a phased array, an focal plane array, an axially-distributed arrangement, etc. Flow 700 optionally further includes operation 730â€”configuring an artificially-structured material having an effective electromagnetic response that corresponds to the electromagnetic parameters in the spatial region. For example, the configuring may include configuring the structure(s) and/or the materials that compose a photonic crystal or a metamaterial. Operation 730 optionally includes determining an arrangement of a plurality of electromagnetically responsive elements having a plurality of individual responses, the plurality of individual responses composing the effective electromagnetic response. For example, the determining may include determining the positions, orientations, and individual response parameters (spatial dimensions, resonant frequencies, linewidths, etc.) of a plurality of metamaterial elements such as split-ring resonators, wire or nanowire pairs, etc. Operation 730 optionally includes configuring at least one electromagnetically-responsive structure to arrange a plurality of distributed electromagnetic responses, the plurality of distributed electromagnetic responses composing the effective electromagnetic response. For example, the configuring may include configuring the distribution of loads and interconnections on a transmission line network, configuring an arrangement of layers in a layered metamaterial, configuring a pattern of etching or deposition (as with a nano-fishnet structure), etc.

With reference now to FIG. 8, an illustrative embodiment is depicted as a system block diagram. The system 800 includes a focusing unit 810 optionally coupled to a controller unit 830. The focusing unit 810 may include a negatively-refractive focusing structure such as that depicted as element 110 in FIGS. 1 and 3. The negatively-refractive focusing structure may be a variable negatively-refractive focusing structure, such as a variable metamaterial responsive to one or more control inputs to vary one or more focusing characteristics (axial magnification, operating frequency/frequency band, operating polarization, effective coordinate transformation for a transformation medium, etc.); and the controller unit 830 may include control circuitry that provides one or more control inputs to the variable negatively-refractive focusing structure. The system 800 optionally further includes a sensing unit 820 that may include one or more sensors, such as those depicted as elements 150 in FIG. 1, and associated circuitry such as receiver circuitry, detector circuitry, and/or signal processing circuitry. The sensing unit 820 is optionally coupled to the controller unit 830, and in some embodiments the controller unit 830 includes circuitry for coordinating or synchronizing the operation of the focusing unit 810 and the sensing unit 820. The controller unit 830 may include circuitry responsive to sensor data (from the sensor unit 820) to vary the focusing characteristics of the focusing structure. As a first example, the controller unit may include circuitry responsive to the sensor data to identify a frequency/polarization of received energy, and adjust the focusing unit to an operating frequency/polarization substantially equal to the frequency/polarization of the received energy. As a second example, the controller unit may include circuitry responsive to the sensor data to identify a target interior focusing region (and/or a target axial magnification), and corresponding adjust the focusing system whereby a negatively-refractive focusing structure provides an interior focusing region substantially equal to the target interior focusing region (and/or an axial magnification substantially equal to the target axial magnification).

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments of the devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will be understood by those within the art that each function and/or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In one embodiment, several portions of the subject matter described herein may be implemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, in whole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in integrated circuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter described herein applies regardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signal bearing medium include, but are not limited to, the following: a recordable type medium such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Video Disk (DVD), a digital tape, a computer memory, etc.; and a transmission type medium such as a digital and/or an analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, a wireless communication link, etc.).

In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that the various aspects described herein which can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof can be viewed as being composed of various types of â€œelectrical circuitry.â€ Consequently, as used herein â€œelectrical circuitryâ€ includes, but is not limited to, electrical circuitry having at least one discrete electrical circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one integrated circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one application specific integrated circuit, electrical circuitry forming a general purpose computing device configured by a computer program (e.g., a general purpose computer configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein), electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g., forms of random access memory), and/or electrical circuitry forming a communications device (e.g., a modem, communications switch, or optical-electrical equipment). Those having skill in the art will recognize that the subject matter described herein may be implemented in an analog or digital fashion or some combination thereof.

All of the above U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in any Application Data Sheet, are incorporated herein by reference, to the extent not inconsistent herewith.

One skilled in the art will recognize that the herein described components (e.g., steps), devices, and objects and the discussion accompanying them are used as examples for the sake of conceptual clarity and that various configuration modifications are within the skill of those in the art. Consequently, as used herein, the specific exemplars set forth and the accompanying discussion are intended to be representative of their more general classes. In general, use of any specific exemplar herein is also intended to be representative of its class, and the non-inclusion of such specific components (e.g., steps), devices, and objects herein should not be taken as indicating that limitation is desired.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations are not expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.

While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as â€œopenâ€ terms (e.g., the term â€œincludingâ€ should be interpreted as â€œincluding but not limited to,â€ the term â€œhavingâ€ should be interpreted as â€œhaving at least,â€ the term â€œincludesâ€ should be interpreted as â€œincludes but is not limited to,â€ etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases â€œat least oneâ€ and â€œone or moreâ€ to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles â€œaâ€ or â€œanâ€ limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases â€œone or moreâ€ or â€œat least oneâ€ and indefinite articles such as â€œaâ€ or â€œanâ€ (e.g., â€œaâ€ and/or â€œanâ€ should typically be interpreted to mean â€œat least oneâ€ or â€œone or moreâ€ ); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of â€œtwo recitations,â€ without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to â€œat least one of A, B, and C, etc.â€ is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., â€œa system having at least one of A, B, and Câ€ would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to â€œat least one of A, B, or C, etc.â€ is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., â€œa system having at least one of A, B, or Câ€ would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase â€œA or Bâ€ will be understood to include the possibilities of â€œAâ€ or â€œBâ€ or â€œA and B.â€

With respect to the appended claims, those skilled in the art will appreciate that recited operations therein may generally be performed in any order. Examples of such alternate orderings may include overlapping, interleaved, interrupted, reordered, incremental, preparatory, supplemental, simultaneous, reverse, or other variant orderings, unless context dictates otherwise. With respect to context, even terms like â€œresponsive to,â€ â€œrelated to,â€ or other past-tense adjectives are generally not intended to exclude such variants, unless context dictates otherwise.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.