We study the interference of evanescent electromagnetic waves generated from multi-slits in a metal film and demonstrate the anomalous bending of light at infrared frequencies due to negative refraction. We also calculate the diffraction of an incident plane electromagnetic waves by a metallic film with an arbitrary linear array of slits, slit separation, and slit dielectric material. In contrast to a double-convex shaped quartz lens, we show that a planar metallic film with a one-dimensional slit array can also focus polarized light in the near-field region when either the slit width or the slit dielectric material becomes spatially nonuniform.
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2012
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