Structured Surfaces for Generation of Negative Index of Refraction

Materials with negative index of refraction have properties that are not naturally available. Such properties can be used to develop novel devices like the superlens which can surpass the diffraction limit. Optical cloaking can be achieved through this negative refractive index method. This article reviews the progress made in the area of negative refractive index materials from the first generation of negative electrical permittivity to the demonstration of negative index of refraction at optical frequency, with the relevant discussion on the physics of these materials. The prime focus of this article is on experimental demonstrations and fabrication related issues of negative refractive index materials which makes use of structured surfaces.     

Study of group velocity in the negative refractive index region in three level closed Λ system via spontaneously generated coherence

A new approach is suggested to realize simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability in a three level closed system with incoherent pumping via spontaneously generated coherence (SGC). In this system the negativity of the real part of magnetic permeability can be achieved in the presence of SGC whereas in the absence of SGC it is positive. Thus the SGC makes the system a negative index medium (NIM) in a band of frequency range. The position and the band of the frequency region of negative refraction can be manipulated by controlling the incoherent pump rate. We achieve FOM?=?7.91165. We have studied the group index in the negative refractive index region and have shown that the group velocity switches from superluminal to subluminal mode in this region of negative refraction. We have shown that the negative refractive index can be realized in a heteronuclear molecule.     

含负折射率材料的一维光子晶体的光学传输特性

采用光学传输矩阵方法,模拟研究了由正折射率材料和负折射率材料交替组成的一维光子晶体的光学传输特性.计算了这种含负折射率材料的一维光子晶体的透射谱和色散关系.结果表明,在正入射时,含负折射率材料的光子晶体的带隙要比传统的光子晶体要大得多,并具有狭窄的透射带,从光学薄膜理论的色散关系出发解释了形成上述现象的原因.讨论了在不同的偏振模式下,光以中心波长入射时,反射率随着入射角度的变化关系.发现含负折射率材料的一维光子晶体具有更好的角度特性,可以用来实现对中心波长的全方位反射.     

Experimental demonstration of near-infrared negative-index metamaterials

Metal-based negative refractive-index materials have been extensively studied in the microwave region. However, negative-index metamaterials have not been realized at near-IR or visible frequencies due to difficulties of fabrication and to the generally poor optical properties of metals at these wavelengths. In this Letter, we report the first fabrication and experimental verification of a transversely structured metal-dielectric-metal multilayer exhibiting a negative refractive index around 2 microm. Both the amplitude and the phase of the transmission and reflection were measured experimentally, and are in good agreement with a rigorous coupled wave analysis.     

Theory of negative-refractive-index response of double-fishnet structures

A theory is presented of the negative refractive index observed in the so-called double-fishnet structures. We find that the electrical response of these structures is dominated by the cutoff frequency of the hole waveguide whereas the resonant magnetic response is due to the excitation of gap surface plasmon polaritons propagating along the dielectric slab. Associated with this origin, we show how the negative refractive index in these metamaterials presents strong dispersion with the parallel momentum of the incident light.     

负折射率介质层中光波的相位和传输特性研究

针对在理解负折射率材料中光波的传播特性时相位的特殊性质 ,详细分析推证了负折射率介质中折射率、波矢k的大小和方向、空间坐标系以及波相相位互之间的关系。分析结果表明负折射率介质层中的波矢k的反常取向是由于其标量值为负 ;在统一的坐标系下 ,由该标量值参与数值计算和分析 ,k则由标量值和单位矢量k0 (k0 >0 )共同决定 ,而不必再考虑左、右手系的区别。在此基础上依据电磁场理论推导了光波在负折射率介质层中的传输矩阵 ,用以分析含有负折射率介质层的复杂薄膜系统的光学性质。初步计算结果显示含有负折射率介质层的膜系对TE和TM波的光谱特性都有显著改变     

Negative refractive index, perfect lenses and checkerboards: Trapping and imaging effects in folded optical spaces

Newly discovered metamaterials have opened new vistas for better control of light via negative refraction, whereby light refracts in the “wrong” manner. These are dielectric and metallic composite materials structured at subwavelength lengthscales. Their building blocks consist of local resonators such as conducting thin bars and split rings driving the material parameters such as the dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability to negative (complex) values. Combined together, these structural elements can bring about a (complex valued) negative effective refractive index for the Snell–Descartes law and result in negative refraction of radiation. Negative refractive index materials can support a host of surface plasmon states for both polarizations of light. This makes possible unique effects such as imaging with subwavelength image resolution through the Pendry–Veselago slab lens. Other geometries have also been investigated, such as cylindrical or spherical lenses that enable a magnification of images with subwavelength resolution. Superlenses of three-fold (equilateral triangle), four-fold (square) and six-fold (hexagonal) geometry allow for multiple images, respectively two, three, and five. Generalization to rectangular and triangular checkerboards consisting of alternating cells of positive and negative refractive index represents a very singular situation in which the density of modes diverges at the corners, with an infinity of images. Sine-cosecant anisotropic heterogeneous square and triangular checkerboards can be respectively mapped onto three-dimensional cubic and icosahedral corner lenses consisting of alternating positive and negative refractive regions. All such systems with corners between negative and positive refractive media display very singular behavior with the local density of states becoming infinitely large at the corner, in the limit of no dissipation. We investigate all of these, using the unifying viewpoint of transformation optics. To cite this article: S. Guenneau, S.A. Ramakrishna, C. R. Physique 10 (2009).     

Kramers-Kronig relations and sum rules of negative refractive index media

Negative refractive index media have become a hot topic in physics due to their proposed revolutionary properties, which would have drastic consequences in design of novel optical devices. We show that Kramers-Kronig relations connecting the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index of absorbing media are valid even though the real refractive index may take negative value at some spectral range. In addition universal sum rules for linear optical constants of negative index media are also valid. This means that negative refractive index media are not fundamentally different from regular media. Hence, any spectrum measured from negative refractive index media can be analyzed using dispersion relations and sum rules, which have so far provided information on the optical properties of materials.Received: 13 May 2004, Published online: 30 September 2004PACS: 77. Dielectrics, piezoelectrics, and ferroelectrics and their properties - 78.20.Ci Optical constants (including refractive index, complex dielectric constant, absorption, reflection and transmission coefficients, emissivity)     

Evidence of negative-index refraction in nonlinear chemical waves

The negative index of refraction of nonlinear chemical waves has become a recent focus in nonlinear dynamics researches. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations have predicted that the negative index of refraction can occur on the interface between antiwaves and normal waves in a reaction-diffusion (RD) system. However, no experimental evidence has been found so far. In this Letter, we report our experimental design in searching for such a phenomenon in a chlorite-iodide-malonic acid (CIMA) reaction. Our experimental results demonstrate that competition between waves and antiwaves at their interface determines the fate of the wave interaction. The negative index of refraction was only observed when the oscillation frequency of a normal wave is significantly smaller than that of the antiwave. All experimental results were supported by simulations using the Lengyel-Epstein RD model which describes the CIMA reaction-diffusion system.     

一种设计Metamaterials结构的新思路

Metamaterials因其在特定频段内同时满足负的介电常数和负磁导率而具有与常规介质不同的电磁特性,该电磁特性与Metamaterials的结构密切相关。分析了线环结构的结构参数与其电磁特性的关系,在此基础上提出了一种方形环结构设计。仿真结果表明,方形环结构可以同时满足负的介电常数和负磁导率,具有负折射特性,而且具有比线环结构更宽的带宽。     

缺陷对左手材料负折射的调控行为

采用电路板刻蚀技术制备左手材料样品，由劈尖法分别研究了无缺陷和引入缺陷时左手材料的负折射特性.实验结果表明，引入两种点缺陷材料与无缺陷材料的功率峰值之比分别为1.035和1.256，且负折射率的绝对值分别增大了9.6%和19.6%；引入空位缺陷材料与无缺陷材料的功率峰值之比最大为1.973，最小为0.364，负折射率的绝对值最大增大了68.3%，最小增大了9.6%.缺陷的存在改变了左手材料周期性结构，形成新的电磁谐振条件，使其负折射率和功率峰值发生了变化，实现了对左手材料负折射率的调控. 关键词： 左手材料 负折射 缺陷     

Control the polarization state of light with symmetry-broken metallic metastructures

Controlling the polarization state, the transmission direction, the amplitude and the phase of light in a very limited space is essential for the development of on-chip photonics. Over the past decades, numerous sub-wavelength metallic microstructures have been proposed and fabricated to fulfill these demands. In this article, we review our efforts in achieving negative refractive index, controlling the polarization state, and tuning the amplitude of light with two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) microstructures. We designed an assembly of stacked metallic U-shaped resonators that allow achieving negative refraction for pure magnetic and electric responses respectively at the same frequency by selecting the polarization of incident light. Based on this, we tune the permittivity and permeability of the structure, and achieve negative refractive index. Further, by control the excitation and radiation of surface electric current on a number of 2D and 3D asymmetric metallic metastructures, we are able to control the polarization state of light. It is also demonstrated that with a stereostructured metal film, the whole metal surfaces can be used to construct either polarization-sensitive or polarization-insensitive prefect absorbers, with the advantage of efficient heat dissipation and electric conductivity. Our practice shows that metamaterials, including metasurface, indeed help to master light in nanoscale, and are promising in the development of new generation of photonics.     

Optical delay lines using coupled slab waveguides and ring resonator with a negative refractive index core

Total delay time of a structure composed of a slab waveguide coupled with a ring resonator where negative refractive index material is replaced in the core of the structure is investigated in this work. In this paper, a two-port ring resonator (TPRR) which is made of a core with negative refractive index has been used to generate a time delay for a Gaussian-shaped pulse with 1 GHz bandwidth. It is shown that the creation of the ring how causes more n_g of a straight waveguide and results are compared with positive refractive index core TPRR. We have used metamaterial to make an n < 0 media and have used two cascaded metamaterial rings to increase the bandwidth.     

周期性层状铁氧体-电介质复合材料中导模模式的有效负折射率

运用等效传输线法研究了周期性层状铁氧体-电介质/金属复合材料导模模式的有效折射率.通过对复合材料导模模式的色散特性和有效折射率的分析和计算，发现负折射率只能出现在TE模式激励下的某一频带内.在负折射率频带内的电磁损耗与复合材料中介电材料的性质密切相关，减小介电损耗可以有效降低复合材料的损耗，但过分小的介电损耗则会导致负折射率的消失. 关键词： 负折射率 导模模式 等效传输线法     

The( p,q) inflation model

In this paper we propose a new inflation model named( p, q) inflation model in which the inflaton potential contains both positive and negative powers of inflaton field in the polynomial form. We derive the accurate predictions of the canonical single-field slow-roll inflation model. Using these formula, we show that our inflation model can easily generate a large amplitude of tensor perturbation and a negative running of spectral index with large absolute value.     

Possible negative refraction in two dimensional ferromagnetic wire lattice

In this paper, we present theoretical and experimental results for the indication of negative refraction in ferromagnetic metallic wire lattice. We have studied microwave transmission through a two dimensional wire lattice made of ferromagnetic metallic wires under the applied static magnetic field. We have found that, the microwave transmission were significantly changed at ferromagnetic resonance frequency region. Thus the magnetic permeability can be tuned by external dc magnetic field. Since the dielectric permittivity of metallic wire lattice is negative and can take a value close to unity then the crystal exhibits negative index of refraction at microwave region under the external magnetic field.     

Study of scattering patterns and subwavelength scale imaging based on finite-sized metamaterials

A metamaterial slab, used as a superlens in a subwavelength imaging system, is frequently assumed homogeneous. It is the bulk properties of the metamaterial which are responsible for the resolution of the transferred information in the image domain, as a result of high transverse wave-vector coupling. However, how in a discretized metamaterial, individual meta-atoms (i.e., the meta-elements composing a negative index metamaterial slab) contribute to the imaging process is still actively studied. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the consequences of using only a few meta-atoms as a negative index slab-equivalent for subwavelength scale imaging. We make a specific choice for a meta-atom and investigate its resonant scattering patterns. We report on how knowledge of these 3D scattering patterns provides a means to understand the transfer of high spatial frequencies and assist with the design an improved negative index slab.     

Imaging properties of uniaxially anisotropic negative refractive index materials

The imaging properties of uniaxially anisotropic negative refractive index materials have been investigated theoretically. Based on an accurate theoretical formulation, we have discussed in detail whether and under what conditions the slabs of uniaxially anisotropic negative refractive index materials will have the power to focus perfectly all Fourier components of an image. It was shown that if the effects of absorption and dispersion can be neglected, under some particular conditions the slabs of uniaxially anisotropic negative refractive index materials will have the power to focus perfectly all E-mode or all H-mode or both E- and H-mode Fourier components of an image. It was also shown that perfect focus cannot occur in the presence of absorption and dispersion, but if the effects of absorption and dispersion are rather small, excellent focus can still occur.     

Optical multistability in nonlinear negative index Fibonacci multilayers

We have demonstrated numerically that the nonlinear negative index Fibonacci multilayer can exhibit optical multistability and offer a wide variety of switching between states of various contrasts. The stepwise up-switch and one-step or stepwise down-switch operations can take place in such structures. It is also shown that multistable operations and contrasts can be controlled by regulating the width of the negative index slabs.     

Negative refraction in the light of the plasma-optical effect

A mathematical expression for the refractive index of a semiconducting material with negative refraction is presented within the context of the plasma-optical effect. The basic ingredients for writing down this expression are the fact that the index of refraction of the above material is negative and the fact that free-carrier effective mass depends upon carrier spatial density. In particular, negative refraction for higher optical frequencies is discussed.