Reconfigurable subwavelength waveguide based on magnetic metamaterial

The design and characterization is described of a reconfigurable subwavelength waveguide based on magnetic metamaterial. The waveguide is capable of reconfiguring its propagating mode from right-handed to left-handed, which can be applied in the design of novel microwave and RF devices such as leaky wave antennas with broadened scanning range. The waveguide consists of a rectangular metallic waveguide loaded by two pieces of different magnetic metamaterials, which are structured by the same cells—modified split ring resonators (MSRRs)—with different arrangements. Positions of the two pieces of metamaterials in the waveguide can be reconfigured separately by the control mechanism. The simulated transmission data show that the waveguide has a passband below the cutoff frequency of the hollow waveguide either in the left-handed case or in the right-handed case. The extracted constitutive parameters have demonstrated that the effective permittivity and permeability of the waveguide are simultaneously negative in the left-handed case and positive in the right-handed case. The magnetic field and surface current distributions in the waveguide confirm that the waveguide operates as can be expected. The influence of the control mechanism on the performance of the waveguide is studied. It is shown that the influence is so minor that it can be neglected.