No Arabic abstract
A robust wedge setup is proposed to unambiguously demonstrate negative refraction for negative index metamaterials. We applied our setup to several optical metamaterials from the literature and distinctly observed the phenomena of negative refraction. This further consolidates the reported negative-index property. It is found there generally exists a lateral shift for the outgoing beam through the wedge. We derived a simple expression for calculating this beam shift and interestingly, it provides us a strategy to quantitatively estimate the loss of the wedge material (Im[n]). Addition- ally, we offered a design of metamaterials, compatible with nano-imprinting-lithography, showing negative refractive index in the visible regime (around yellow-light wavelengths). The multi-layer- system retrieval was utilized to extract the effective refractive index of the metamaterial. It was also intuitively characterized through our wedge setup to demonstrate corresponding phenomena of refraction.
A wedge-shaped structure made of split-ring resonators (SRR) and wires is numerically simulated to evaluate its refraction behavior. Four frequency bands, namely, the stop band, left-handed band, ultralow-index band, and positive-index band, are distinguished according to the refracted field distributions. Negative phase velocity inside the wedge is demonstrated in the left-handed band and the Snells law is conformed in terms of its refraction behaviors in different frequency bands. Our results confirmed that negative index of refraction indeed exists in such a composite metamaterial and also provided a convincing support to the results of previous Snells law experiments.
Negative index metamaterials (NIMs) give rise to unusual and intriguing properties and phenomena, which may lead to important applications such as superlens, subwavelength cavity and slow light devices. However, the negative refractive index in metamaterials normally requires a stringent condition of simultaneously negative permittivity and negative permeability. A new class of negative index metamaterials - chiral NIMs, have been recently proposed. In contrast to the conventional NIMs, chiral NIMs do not require the above condition, thus presenting a very robust route toward negative refraction. Here we present the first experimental demonstration of a chiral metamaterial exhibiting negative refractive index down to n=-5 at terahertz frequencies, with only a single chiral resonance. The strong chirality present in the structure lifts the degeneracy for the two circularly polarized waves and relieves the double negativity requirement. Chiral NIM are predicted to possess intriguing electromagnetic properties that go beyond the traditional NIMs, such as opposite signs of refractive indices for the two circular polarizations and negative reflection. The realization of terahertz chiral NIMs offers new opportunities for investigations of their novel electromagnetic properties, as well as important terahertz device applications.
In this paper, we numerically demonstrate a near-infrared negative-index metamaterial (NIM) slab consisting of multiple layers of perforated metal-dielectric stacks and exhibiting low imaginary part of index over the wavelength of negative refraction. The effective index is obtained using two different numerical methods and found to be consistent. Backward phase propagation is verified by calculation of fields inside the metamaterial. These results point to a new design of low loss thick metamaterial at optical frequencies.
Optically isotropic metamaterials (MMs) are required for the implementation of subwavelength imaging systems. At first glance one would expect that their design should be based on unit cells exhibiting a cubic symmetry being the highest crystal symmetry. It is anticipated that this is a sufficient condition since it is usually assumed that light does not resolve the spatial details of MM but experiences the properties of an effective medium, which is then optically isotropic. In this work we challenge this assumption by analyzing the isofrequency surfaces of the dispersion relation of the split-cube in carcass (SCiC) negative index MM. We show that this MM is basically optically isotropic, but not in the spectral domain where it exhibits negative refraction. The primary goal of this contribution is to introduce a tool that allows to probe a MM against optical isotropy.
We examine the Seidel aberrations of thin spherical lenses composed of media with refractive index not restricted to be positive. We find that consideration of this expanded parameter space allows reduction or elimination of more aberrations than is possible with only positive index media. In particular we find that spherical lenses possessing real aplanatic focal points are possible only with negative index. We perform ray tracing, using custom code that relies only on Maxwells equations and conservation of energy, that confirms the results of the aberration calculations.