Spontaneous emission enhancement in metal-dielectric metamaterials

We study the spontaneous emission of a dipole emitter imbedded into a layered metal-dielectric metamaterial. We demonstrate ultra-high values of the Purcell factor in such structures due to a high density of states with hyperbolic isofrequency surfaces. We reveal that the traditional effective-medium approach greatly underestimates the value of the Purcell factor due to the presence of an effective nonlocality, and we present an analytical model which agrees well with numerical calculations.     

利用电介质柱共振器实现电磁响应模式可转变的电磁超介质

本文利用电磁场数值计算方法研究了横截面具有不同长宽比例的电介质柱的电磁共振模式,发现横截面长宽比例影响电介质柱共振模式的激发顺序.截面长宽比小于2.2时,首先激发磁共振模式;而长宽比大于2.2时,磁共振模式在第二个共振被激发;作为转折点,截面长宽比例约为2.2的电介质柱不能激发磁共振模式.结果还表明改变电磁波入射方向可以调节长方形截面的电介质柱的磁共振发生的频率位置,实现偏振可控的电磁响应,这为新颖的电介质电磁超介质的设计与研究提供有价值的信息. 关键词： 电介质 电磁超介质 共振     

Effective optical constants in stratified metal-dielectric metameterial

Effective optical constants of stratified metal-dielectric metameterial are presented. The effective constants are determined by the two-complex reflectivity method (TCRM). The TCRM reveals the full components of the effective permittivity and permeability tensors and indicates the remarkable anisotropy of metallic and dielectric components below the effective plasma frequency. On the other hand, above the plasma frequency, one of the effective refractive indices takes a positive value less than unity and is associated with small loss. The photonic states are confirmed by the distribution of electromagnetic fields.     

Structure and properties of electromagnetic metamaterials

Metamaterials are artificial materials structured on a subwavelength scale to provide electromagnetic properties beyond those available in nature. Progress in this young field has been startlingly swift. The last year alone has seen the realization of the first optical negative‐index metamaterials and the constructon of two very striking metamaterial‐based devices: an invisibility cloak and a far‐field lens capable of subwavelength imaging. Here, I review these developments and the key concepts that made them possible.     

Computer simulation of surface-enhanced Raman scattering in nanostructured metamaterials

The simulation of local field fluctuations and surface-enhanced Raman scattering in percolation systems at the percolation threshold is described. An approximate real-space renormalization group method was used in the simulation. It allows one to radically reduce the computation time compared to an exact calculation and to obtain detailed information about the electromagnetic field. The local fields in real macroscopic systems can be calculated by using this approximation. A computer simulation of the local fields in metal island (percolation) films has been performed by the developed method. The calculation has confirmed the existence of giant local field fluctuations. In turn, the local electric field excites Raman scattering. The local fields of surface-enhanced Raman scattering have been calculated for the first time. The dependence of the Raman scattering enhancement factor on the reference frequency and Stokes shift has been derived. An experimental observation of this dependence could be considered as a confirmation of the electromagnetic nature of the enhancement.     

Enhanced transmission of electromagnetic waves through metamaterials

This paper reviews our recent experimental and simulation results regarding the electromagnetic wave transmission through three configurations of sandwiching structures of metamaterials: a metallic mesh sandwiched between two identical layers composed of split rings, metallic fractals, and fractal slits, respectively. We observed the enhanced transmission of the waves through these three types of sandwiching composites with respect to the opaque metallic mesh. The locations of the transmission peaks in the spectrum are associated closely with the band characteristics of the sandwiching layer by appearing either on the left- or the right-hand side of its band. PACS 41.20.Jb; 42.70.Qs; 78.20.-e; 42.25.Bs; 47.53.+n     

Manipulating electromagnetic wave polarizations by anisotropic metamaterials

We show that the polarization states of electromagnetic waves can be manipulated through reflections by an anisotropic metamaterial plate, and all possible polarizations (circular, elliptic, and linear) are realizable via adjusting material parameters. In particular, a linearly polarized light converts its polarization completely to the cross direction after reflection under certain conditions. Microwave experiments were performed to successfully realize these ideas and results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations.     

Parametrically shielding electromagnetic fields by nonlinear metamaterials

An analytical theory is developed for parametric interactions in metamaterial multilayer structures with simultaneous nonlinear electronic and magnetic responses and with a near-zero refractive index. We demonstrate theoretically that electromagnetic fields of certain frequencies can be parametrically shielded by a nonlinear left-handed material slab, where the permittivity and permeability are both negative. The skin depth is tunable, and even in the absence of material absorption, can be much less than the wavelength of the electromagnetic field being shielded. This exotic behavior is a consequence of the intricate nonlinear response in the left-handed materials and vanishing optical refractive index at the pump frequency.     

Optical properties of nanostructured 2D metal-dielectric photonic crystals with a lattice defect

Optical properties of 2D nanocomposite-based photonic crystals with a lattice defect are studied. The nanocomposite comprises metallic nanospheres dispersed in a transparent matrix and is characterized by an effective resonant permittivity. Transmission spectrum for s-polarized waves at oblique incidence is calculated. Spectral manifestation of the splitting of the defect mode when its frequency coincides with the resonant frequency of the nanocomposite is studied. The essential dependence of the splitting on the angle of incidence and concentration of metallic nanospheres in the nanocomposite matrix is established. Specific features of spatial distribution of the electric field intensity in defect modes of crystals are analyzed.     

Effective medium approximation for optical bistability in nonlinear metal-dielectric composites

A general theory based on the spectral representation method and effective medium approximation is adopted to investigate the optical bistable behavior in a nonlinear two-phase composite with symmetrical microstructure, in which the metal particles of the volume fraction p and the dielectric particles of the volume fraction 1−p are randomly dispersed but oriented with respect to one another. The relation between the spatial average of local field squared and the external applied field is established through the spectral density function m(x), obtained from the modified Bruggeman effective medium approximation. We find that the optical bistability (OB) is dependent on the depolarization factor L of the components and the volume fraction p. For a given p, we predict that OB can be observed only when L is larger than the critical value L_c, and bistable behavior is more pronounced at large L. Moreover, numerical results show that both the upper threshold field and the width of OB region increase monotonically as L increases. The field-dependent reflectance at normal incidence R in random composites is also investigated.     

Enhanced nonlinear optical response of one-dimensional metal-dielectric photonic crystals

We describe a new type of artificial nonlinear optical material composed of a one-dimensional metal-dielectric photonic crystal. Because of the resonant nature of multiple Bragg reflections, the transmission within the transmission band can be quite large, even though the transmission through the same total thickness of bulk metal would be very small. This procedure allows light to penetrate into the highly nonlinear metallic layers, leading to a large nonlinear optical response. We present experimental results for a Cu/SiO(2) crystal which displays a strongly enhanced nonlinear optical response (up to 12X) in transmission.     

Magnetic monopole-like response in metamaterials

In this paper, we explored magnetic monopole-like responses in metamaterials. We designed a sub-wavelength metamolecule that is composed of two dielectric-spaced split-ring resonators. In response to incident waves, the induced magnetic field in the metamolecule resembles that of a two-dimensional magnetic monopole. The magnetic monopole-like response is resulted from electric resonance of the metamolecule, so an electric dipole is always attached. By combining two mirror-symmetric metamolecules with inward and outward radial magnetic fields, magnetic dipole-like responses can be produced just as an electric dipole is formed by separating two opposite-signed electric charges.     

Effective dielectric function of a metal-dielectric composite with nonrandomly distributed particles

Summary The optical properties of a metal-dielectric binary composite with nonrandomly distributed particles were studied within the framework of the effective medium theory. All the particles, as usual, were assumed to be spherical and the nonrandomness of their distribution was achieved by forcing onto the system the correlation that prevents the metal particles from touching each other or the one that forces them to aggregate in pairs, either oriented at random or all alike. The drawbacks of the effective medium theory due to the assumption that the particles be very small were overcome by describing the scattering properties of the particles through their exact Mie amplitudes. Both kinds of correlation we considered turned out to have substantial effects on the onset of the percolation phenomena. The transition induced by the correlation of exclusion from a behaviour typical of the Bruggeman model to one more appropriate to the Maxwell-Garnett model was followed as a function of the exclusion radius. In the case of aggregation the onset of the percolation phenomena was found to be strongly influenced by the further introduction of an orientational order of the pairs. Based on work supported in part by the U. S. Army European Research Office through Contract DAJA45-86-C-0003 and in part by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche through the Gruppo Nazionale Struttura della Materia.     

电磁超材料中负磁导率对负介电常数的影响

为深入了解电磁超材料中物质间相互作用关系,理论分析了金属导体线阵列宏结构嵌入单负磁导率媒质中时其等效介电常数的变化特性。数值计算和电磁仿真方法相结合,讨论了单负磁导率媒质和单负介电常数媒质的相互作用关系,提出了减小其相互作用的解决方法。仿真结果显示：将金属线阵列直接嵌入到单负磁导率媒质中时,电磁超材料传输特性在整个频段内为传输禁带;将金属线裹附一层绝缘材料后,传输禁带变为传输通带,这表明金属线阵列和单负磁导率媒质之间必须加入一种绝缘材料才能合成双负的电磁超材料。     

Effective parameters and energy of acoustic metamaterials and media

An approach is proposed to describe a general form of acoustic media, in particular, acoustic metamaterials, based on their modeling with the simplest discrete periodic structures. The parameters of the discrete models, determined from the dispersion equation, are taken as the effective parameters of the modeled media. Transfer to an effective continuous medium is achieved by uniform distribution of these parameters over the length of the periodicity cell. It is shown that all of the wave motion characteristics of the medium, including the energy characteristics, are expressed through the effective parameters thus introduced. The necessary formulas are derived. Examples are given. The proposed method is useful for designing acoustic materials with the given wave properties.     

Manipulating electromagnetic wave with the magnetic surface plasmon based metamaterials

In this work, we have investigated the optical properties of the magnetic metamaterials (MMs) consisting of periodically/randomly arranged ferrite rods. By calculating the photonic band diagrams and transmittance, we have identified a photonic band gap originating from the magnetic surface plasmon (MSP) resonance. In addition, by tuning the external magnetic field (EMF), an MM slab can be used as an optical switch. Our simulated results also suggest that the optical properties of the MMs are robust against the position disorder and the size fluctuation of the ferrite rods. Moreover, by examining the relation between the transmittance and the EMF, we can optimize the EMF to realize the best switching effect. With the retrieved effective constitutive parameters ε _eff and μ _eff obtained from the effective-medium theory, the optimal EMF can be understood in a more clear manner.     

Manipulating electromagnetic waves with metamaterials: Concept and microwave realizations

Our recent efforts in manipulating electromagnetic （EM） waves using metamaterials （MTMs） are reviewed with em- phasis on 1） manipulating wave polarization and transporting properties using homogeneous MTMs, 2） manipulating surface-wave properties using plasmonic MTMs, and 3） bridging propagating and surface waves using inhomogeneous meta-surfaces. For all these topics, we first illustrate the physical concepts and then present several typical practical real- izations and applications in the microwave regime.     

Effective optical parameters of thin-film and bulk metamaterials ofmetallodielectric nanosandwiches

We report on the effective optical response of single- and multilayer periodic structures of metallodielectric nanosandwiches on the basis of rigorous, full-electrodynamic calculations by the extended layer-multiple-scattering method. It is shown that the complex photonic band structure and the reflection coefficient of the infinite and semi-infinite crystal, respectively, provide reliable bulk effective parameters, which can be used as a reference in order to resolve ambiguities and problems in the determination of these parameters for finite slabs by the S-matrix retrieval procedure. Our results show that the structures under consideration exhibit strong artificial optical magnetism and thin films consisting of a few layers already behave like the bulk metamaterial.