Re:Not lenses - diffraction compensators! (Score 2, Interesting)

I don't know of any experiments with "real" negative-index-materials. The material in these "lenses" has a positive index, but since they have a periodic structure with a period close to the wavelength of the light they behave as being negative-index. These meta-materials are often called "Photonic crystals". The effect of the negative index is that rays are bent "the wrong way" such that rays from a single point refocus at the same distance within the crystal and hence create the 1:1 image. It's very much like a grating, only a very complicated 2D or 3D grating.

Now I'm getting into deep waters, but I don't think that you get super-resolution (better than the wavelength of the light) unless image is close enough to be within region where the evanescent waves still exist.