Power propagation in homogeneous isotropic frequency-dispersive left-handed media

We study transmission at a boundary between a right-handed medium (RHM: epsilon>0, mu>0) and a frequency dispersive left-handed medium [LHM: epsilon(omega)<0, mu(omega)<0 for some omega], both homogeneous and isotropic. In order to account for the dispersion, two types of signal spectra are considered. The first consists of two discrete frequencies, while the second is Gaussian. Explicit expressions for the time-domain fields are obtained, from which the time-averaged Poynting vectors and hence power flow vectors are calculated. In both cases, we find that waves refract at negative angles at a RHM-LHM interface.     

Negative refractive index in left-handed materials

The real part of the refractive index n(omega) of a nearly transparent and passive medium is usually taken to have only positive values. Through an analysis of a current source radiating into a 1D "left-handed" material (LHM)-where the permittivity and permeability are simultaneously less than zero-we determine the analytic structure of n(omega), demonstrating frequency regions where the sign of Re[n(omega)] must, in fact, be negative. The regime of negative index, made relevant by a recent demonstration of an effective LHM, leads to unusual electromagnetic wave propagation and merits further exploration.     

Structure for localizing electromagnetic waves with a left-handed-medium slab and a conducting plane

A new structure is proposed for localizing electromagnetic waves and energies with a left-handed-medium (LHM) slab and a perfectly electrically conducting (PEC) plane. When a current source is placed in front of a perfectly matched LHM slab with negative permittivity -epsilon0 and negative permeability -mu0 and a PEC plane is placed at the image point, we show rigorously that all the electromagnetic waves are confined in a region between the source and the PEC plane, and the fields outside the region are completely zero. Such an energy-localization system would be useful in medical treatments that use concentrated optical and microwave energies. However, a perfectly matched LHM is unphysical and does not exist in nature. Hence we further study the loss and retardation effects of LHM on the energy localization. Numerical results are presented for the lossy LHM structure to demonstrate the energy localization.     

三层不对称人工电磁材料界面处表面等离子体激元的理论研究

从P和S偏振出发.研究了由常规材料/左手材料/负介电常数材料、及常规材料/左手材料/负磁导率材料这两种三层不对称结构界面上表面等离子体激元(Surface plasmon polaritons,SPPs)的存在区域、色散曲线及其激发.观察到表面等离子体激元的性质强烈地依赖于人工电磁材料的组成参量,例如介质板的厚度和等离子体的频率.最后,使用衰减全反射(Attenuated total reflection,ATR)技术,探究了激发和观察表面等离子体激元的可能性.并针对P和s偏振两种情况计算了衰减全反射光谱.     

Subharmonic resonances in plasmas: exponential and superexponential growth of driven relativistic plasma waves

Subharmonic resonant beat-wave excitation of nonlinear relativistic plasma waves is studied analytically and in particle-in-cell simulations. We find that if the frequency separation of the lasers, Deltaomega, is 2omega(p) or 3omega(p) ( omega(p) is the plasma frequency), then plasma waves are still excited at omega(p) but they grow exponentially or superexponentially rather than secularly. Both of these subharmonic resonant instabilities saturate due to relativistic detuning. The analytical growth rates and saturation levels agree with the simulation results.     

Topology optimization of multilayer left-handed material based on the genetic algorithm

Owing to the special properties, left-handed materials (LHM) have important potential applications in engineering. However, in the current stage, the design of LHM is primarily based on several basic prototypes such as meta-material and transmission line structures. In the present work, the topology optimization technology is introduced to design a type of multilayer LHM. A type of one-dimensional material with periodic unit cell is studied and the topology of its microstructure is designed by using the technology of enumerative search and genetic algorithm (GA), respectively. The material is composed of metal and ferrite films, and several types of negative refraction materials are obtained numerically. These obtained materials with periodic unit cells can exhibit negative refractive index in some frequency spectrums, and the results show that the GA could achieve good designs efficiently in a larger design space.     

Left-handed metamaterial based superlens for subwavelength imaging of electromagnetic waves

Lenses made of negative index materials have the ability to focus the propagating and evanescent components of electromagnetic waves. Such a possibility enables super resolution, in turn resulting in sharper, subwavelength size images. In this present work, we present subwavelength imaging that was obtained from a one-dimensional left-handed metamaterial (LHM) composed of alternating layers of split-ring resonators and thin wires. We investigated the effect of the thickness of LHM lenses on image size. The left-handed pass band within the negative permittivity and permeability region is shown experimentally and theoretically for different thicknesses of LHM slabs. We also studied the transmission-phase of LHMs with a different number of unit cells along the propagation direction. The phase decreases with the increasing thicknesses of LHM slabs, proving that the phase velocity is negative in the left-handed transmission band. PACS 42.25.-p; 41.20.Jb; 81.05.-t     

Nature of the short wavelength excitations in vitreous silica: An X-Ray brillouin scattering study

Spontaneous emission in photonic crystals with anisotropic three-dimensional dispersion relation is studied. If the upper level is below a characteristic frequency omega(1), or above omega(2), or between omega(1) and omega(2), the radiation is a localized field with a frequency in the band gap, or a propagating field with a frquency in the band, or a diffusion field, respectively. An analytical expression for the Lamb shift is obtained. The Lamb shift for the current case is small compared to that in an ordinary vacuum or in one- or two-dimensional photonic crystals due to lower density of states.     

Photon tunneling and transmittance resonance through a multi-layer structure with a left-handed materialvspace2pt

This paper investigates the photon tunneling and transmittance resonance through a multi-layer structure including a left-handed material(LHM). An analytical expression for the transmittance in a five-layer structure is given by the analytical transfer matrix method. The transmittance is studied as a function of the refractive index and the width of the LHM layer. The perfect photon tunneling results from the multi-layer structure, especially from the relation between the magnitude of the refractive index and the width of the LHM layer and those of the adjoining layers. Photons may tunnel through a much greater distance in this structure. Transmittance resonance happens, the peaks and valleys appear periodically at the resonance thickness. For an LHM with inherent losses, the perfect transmittance is suppressed.     

A wide band left handed material with high transmission

In this study, we propose guidelines to optimize the transmission and bandwidth of left handed materials (LHM) composed of two-dimensional lattice of metallic wires interleaved with double split ring resonators (SRRs). Several LHM structures are fabricated to test the proposed rules of design and operate between 7 and 14 GHz. In a first step, we show that adding extra SRR layers within each period of wire layers (i.e. interleaving the wire lattice with several SRR lattices) increases the transmittance of the material. In a second step, we demonstrate that adding extra SRR layers in a non-equidistant manner (i.e. inserting several SRR lattices shifted one another by different distances) widens the LHM frequency bandwidth. The results of experimental characterization are found to be in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. A LHM behavior is obtained in a wide frequency band of 1 GHz around 8.2 GHz with a transmission of −1.2 dB measured at resonance. The negative refraction of the material is verified from measurements at oblique incidence.     

基于左手介质后向波特性的微带天线小型化研究

基于色散性稳定、频带宽、电尺寸小的左手介质结构单元，设计了一种左手介质和传统介质相结合的微带天线基板结构，利用左手介质的后向波效应对传统介质中传播后的电磁波进行相位补偿，从而实现微带天线小型化设计.理论计算和数值仿真结果表明，工作于4.7 GHz的微带天线的物理尺寸被减小了37.92%，突破了传统微带天线的半波长要求的限制，而小型化的微带天线的增益、带宽等性能方面与传统天线相当，证明了用左手介质小型化微带天线的可行性和实用性.     

Stabilization of interchange modes in mirror plasmas by a nonlinear rf-plasma wave coupling process

Experimental and theoretical studies are made of the consequences of a nonlinear coupling process between pump rf waves and interchange modes in mirror plasmas. It is demonstrated that the interchange-stable operation window exists depending on the applied rf power and gamma=omega(0)/Omega(i), where omega(0) (Omega(i)) is the angular frequency of the applied rf wave (ion cyclotron frequency). Results are shown that the nonlinear wave coupling process gives rise to the operation window near the resonance (gamma approximately equal to 1), which is elucidated by theoretical analyses combined with full rf wave simulations.     

Floquet-van Vleck analysis of heteronuclear spin decoupling in solids: the effect of spinning and decoupling sidebands on the spectrum

We investigate the effect of magic angle spinning on heteronuclear spin decoupling in solids. We use an analytical Floquet-van Vleck formalism to derive expressions for the powder-averaged signal as a function of time. These expressions show that the spectrum consists of a centerband at the isotropic frequency of the observed spin, omega(0), and rotational decoupling sidebands at omega(0)+/-omega(1)+/-momega(r), where omega(1) is the decoupling field strength and omega(r) is the rotation frequency. Rotary resonance occurs when the rotational decoupling sidebands overlap with the centerband. Away from the rotary resonance conditions, the intensity of the centerband as a function of omega(r)/omega(1) is simply related to the total intensity of the rotational decoupling sidebands. Notably, in the absence of offset terms it is shown that as omega(1) decreases, the centerband intensity can decrease without any associated broadening. Furthermore, the centerband width is shown to be independent of spinning speed, to second order for the effects we consider. The effects of I spin chemical shift anisotropy and homonuclear dipolar couplings are also investigated. The analytical results are compared to simulations and experiments.     

Multi-band left-handed metamaterial inspired by tree-shaped fractal geometry

We report an alternative method of designing a new metamaterial with left handed (LH) characteristics over multi-band (MB) frequencies at microwave frequency regime. The resultant LH metamaterial (LHM) consisting of a single-sided tree-shaped fractal structure features triple magnetic resonances and one electric resonance apart from the lower metal plasma response, which is responsible for the three bands of negative refraction. The multi-resonant mechanism has been systematically studied to account for all electromagnetic behaviors, and capacitor–inductor circuit models are put forward for quantitative analysis. The LHM is balanced in the fundamental passband when only one layer is utilized, whereas the balanced condition is slightly broken when a collection of sub-wavelength cells are cascaded. The negative-zero-positive refraction of the fundamental LH band and the negative refraction of the higher LH band have been numerically validated by a prism-like LHM. For demonstration, a three-layer LHM slab sample is fabricated and measured. Consistent numerical and experimental results are observed. The method not requiring individual resonant particles and electrically continuous wires paves the way for a new route to compact MB LHM design.     

Lower RCS directional antenna by left-handed material

We theoretically study the radiation of a current line source with a surrounding cylindrical shell of left-handed material (LHM). The far-field radiation pattern is obtained by solving the Maxwell equation in a cylindrical coordinate, which show that this radiation system has good directional emission characteristics and can be used as a directive antenna. The directive emission is explained due to the negative refraction and the focus effect occurring at the interface of the LHM shell. Compared with the parabolic reflector antenna with the same aperture size, our antenna has lower radar cross-section (RCS) in a broadband frequency range, providing a way to realize lower RCS antenna.     

Guided modes in slab waveguides with a left handed material cover or substrate

We study guided modes propagating along a dielectric slab waveguide with a left handed material (LHM) cover or substrate. The dispersion relation is derived by using normalized waveguide parameters. An analytical method is then proposed to calculate the universal dispersion curves. Different from a slab waveguide with a LHM core, we find that guidance properties are strongly dependent on dielectric permittivity ε and magnetic permeability μ of the substrate and cover layers. For oscillating guided modes, fundamental zero order mode is not always absence, sometimes it exists in a restricted range of normalized propagation constant. First order mode behaves as other higher order modes and exists up to infinite high frequency. Higher order modes have no double degeneracy in the case of LHM cover layer. For surface guided modes, the existence and the type of the mode solutions with respect to different parameters are classified systematically and discussed in detail. Unlike a slab waveguide with a LHM core where the dispersion curve of TE₁ surface mode continues with that of oscillating TE₁ mode, the dispersion curve of TE₁ surface mode continues with that of oscillating TE₀ mode. It seems that the two different kinds of modes compensate each other to form one whole mode. Both TE and TM guided modes are discussed.     

一种用于60 GHz通信的S型结构左手材料的设计

基于对S型结构的理论分析,将中心频率设置为60 GHz,通过合理的改变单元结构中相应的尺寸以实现所需电谐振和磁谐振频率,并且经过优化以实现负介电常量和负磁导率的重合频段尽可能理想. 运用反演参量提取方法进行电磁参量提取,可以得到本设计在58.1~61.4 GHz频段内其ε和μ同时为负,即左手频段. 分析散射参量的仿真结果,在58~62 GHz频段内S₂₁大于-3 dB,在59.8~60.4 GHz频段内,S₁₁小于-20 dB,因此该设计结果可以运用于60 GHz通信滤波器和天线等器件的研究与设计.     

Packet waves in a reaction-diffusion system

The finite-wavelength instability gives rise to a new type of wave in reaction-diffusion systems: packet waves, which propagate only within a wave packet, are found in experiments on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction dispersed in water-in-oil AOT microemulsion (BZ-AOT) as well as in model simulations. Inwardly moving packet waves with negative curvature occur in experiments and in a model of the BZ-AOT system when the dispersion d omega(k)/dk is negative at the characteristic wave number k(0). This result sheds light on the origin of anti-spirals.     

Numerical analysis of propagation characteristics of electromagnetic wave in lossy left-handed material media

The propagation characteristics of electromagnetic wave in lossy left-handed materials (LHM) are studied using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method base on auxiliary differential equation (ADE) technology. The LHM medium is realized with lossy Drude models for both the negative electric permittivity and the negative magnetic permeability. The discretized ADE-FDTD equations are derived in detail. The incident wave used in the simulation is a multiple cycle m-n-m pulses source. The term of Poynting's vector E_xH_y was calculated. These numerical results demonstrate conclusively that the phase velocity direction of electromagnetic wave propagation and the direction of the Poynting vectors are anti-parallel in LHM. The amplitude of electric field is reduced with the enhancive distance of LHM slab. It is also demonstrated that the energy of electromagnetic wave in the LHM slab is obviously attenuated, and the attenuation of energy becomes stronger with the angular plasma frequency ω_p increasing. These results indicate that LHM stealth is effective in theory, and reasonable selection of the large negative index of refraction can greatly enhance its effectiveness.     

A metamaterial with multi-band left handed characteristic

A novel left handed (LH) metamaterial (LHM) with multi-band (MB) LH behavior is numerically and experimentally studied based on three split ring resonator pairs (SRRPs). The SRRPs are patterned on both sides of a single dielectric slab, featuring three magnetic resonances and two electric resonances. By cautiously designing the dimensions of each SRRP, the magnetic resonances and electric resonances can be individually controlled, and the resulting negative permeability and negative permittivity can be overlapped to engineer a MB LHM. The multiresonant mechanism has been studied from field distribution analysis and circuit model analysis. For demonstration, a prototype example was fabricated and measured. Good agreement between simulation and measurement is observed. Measurement results indicate two bands of negative refractive index (NRI) in 7.41–7.74 GHz and 9.8–10.4 GHz. The suggested novel LHM opens an alternative to prepare the cloaks, absorbers, antennas, and frequency selective surface (FSS) suitable for multifrequencies.