arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Costas M. Soukoulis.
We present and analyze a dielectric cluster based on subwavelength LiTaO3 polaritonic cylinders for demonstrating toroidal response in THz regime due to mutual coupling of Mie- resonance modes of the cylinders. Based on this cluster, we demonstrate a low-loss metamaterial with the dominant toroidal response, which plays a key role in achieving resonant total transmission.
We demonstrate how the optical gradient force between two waveguides can be enhanced using transformation optics. A thin layer of double-negative or single-negative metamaterial can shrink the interwaveguide distance perceived by light, resulting in a more than tenfold enhancement of the optical force. This process is remarkably robust to the dissipative loss normally observed in metamaterials. Our results provide an alternative way to boost optical gradient forces in nanophotonic actuation systems and may be combined with existing resonator-based enhancement methods to produce optical forces with an unprecedented amplitude.
Metamaterials are patterned metallic structures which permit access to a novel electromagnetic response, negative index of refraction, impossible to achieve with naturally occurring materials. Using the Babinet principle, the complementary split ring resonator (SRR) is etched in a metallic plate to provide negative ε, with perpendicular direction. Here we propose a new design, etched in a metallic plate to provide negative magnetic permeability μ, with perpendicular direction. The combined electromagnetic response of this planar metamaterial, where the negative μcomes from the aperture and the negative εfrom the remainder of the continuous metallic plate, allows achievement of a double negative index metamaterial (NIM) with only one metasurface and strong transmission. These designs can be used to fabricate NIMs at microwave and optical wavelengths and three-dimensional metamaterials.
Several classical analogues of electromagnetically induced transparency in metamaterials have been demonstrated. A simple two-resonator model can describe their absorption spectrum qualitatively, but fails to provide information about the scattering properties-e.g., transmission and group delay. Here we develop an alternative model that rigorously includes the coupling of the radiative resonator to the external electromagnetic fields. This radiating two-oscillator model can describe both the absorption spectrum and the scattering parameters quantitatively. The model also predicts metamaterials with a narrow spectral feature in the absorption larger than the background absorption of the radiative element. This classical analogue of electromagnetically induced absorption is shown to occur when both the dissipative loss of the radiative resonator and the coupling strength are small. These predictions are subsequently demonstrated in experiments.
Recent advancements in metamaterials and plasmonics have promised a number of exciting applications, in particular at terahertz and optical frequencies. Unfortunately, the noble metals used in these photonic structures are not particularly good conductors at high frequencies, resulting in significant dissipative loss. Here, we address the question of what is a good conductor for metamaterials and plasmonics. For resonant metamaterials, we develop a figure-of-merit for conductors that allows for a straightforward classification of conducting materials according to the resulting dissipative loss in the metamaterial. Application of our method predicts that graphene and high-Tc superconductors are not viable alternatives for metals in metamaterials. We also provide an overview of a number of transition metals, alkali metals and transparent conducting oxides. For plasmonic systems, we predict that graphene and high-Tc superconductors cannot outperform gold as a platform for surface plasmon polaritons, because graphene has a smaller propagation length-to-wavelength ratio.
An important tool in the field of metamaterials is the extraction of effective material parameters from simulated or measured scattering parameters of a sample. Here we discuss a retrieval method for thin-film structures that can be approximated by a two-dimensional scattering sheet. We determine the effective sheet conductivity from the scattering parameters and we point out the importance of the magnetic sheet current to avoid an overdetermined inversion problem. Subsequently, we present two applications of the sheet retrieval method. First, we determine the effective sheet conductivity of thin silver films and we compare the resulting conductivities with the sheet conductivity of graphene. Second, we apply the method to a cut-wire metamaterial with an electric dipole resonance. The method is valid for thin-film structures such as two-dimensional metamaterials and frequency-selective surfaces and can be easily generalized for anisotropic or chiral media.
An electric inductor-capacitor (ELC) resonator provides a series of electrical resonances and a pair of ELC resonators leads to the split of each resonance into two modes, i.e., magnetic and electric modes, corresponding to antisymmetric and symmetric current distributions. With the meticulous design of the ELC resonator, we can achieve a negative index metamaterial through mode hybridization by overlapping the first electric resonance mode and the second magnetic resonance mode. Such non-connected designs may offer opportunities to achieve three-dimensional negative index metamaterials.
We investigate the influence of different metals on the electromagnetic response of fishnet metamaterials in the optical regime.We found, instead of using a Drude model, metals with a dielectric function from experimentally measured data should be applied to correctly predict the behavior of optical metamaterials. Through comparison of the performance for fishnet metamaterials made with different metals (i.e., gold, copper, and silver), we found silver is the best choice for the metallic parts compared to other metals, because silver allows for the strongest negative-permeability resonance and, hence, for optical fishnet metamaterials with a high figure-of-merit. Our study offers a valuable reference in the designs for optical metamaterials with optimized properties.
We observe toroidal response from a planar metamaterial comprised of asymmetric split ring resonators (ASRRs). It is showed that a toroidal-molecule can be constructed through rational arrangement of planar ASRRs as meta-atoms via manipulating structural symmetry of the meta-atoms. Field maps clearly indicate that the toroidal resonance paves new electromagnetic confinement style in a subwavelength scale. Planar scheme of manipulating the coupling among the ASRRs may stimulate research in optical region involving toroidal multipoles. Toroidal geometry together with the Fano resonance made high-Q response will have enormous potential applications in low-threshold lasing, cavity quantum electrodynamics and nonlinear processing.
We present a simple model of the interface between a local homogeneous medium and a potentially nonlocal metamaterial/photonic crystal. This model allows us to calculate the scattering matrix elements of the interface for a plane wave of light normally incident upon the interface from either direction. The resulting scattering matrix provides insight into the non-Maxwellian boundary conditions present at the interface between a homogeneous medium and a metamaterial/photonic crystal with strong spatial dispersion. We present the model mathematically. As an example, the model is used to calculate the scattering matrix of the interface between vacuum and a simple photonic crystal. Several tests of the calculated scattering matrix elements are presented. Finally, we used the results of the scattering model to postulate possible forms for the non-Maxwellian boundary conditions.
We establish a new approach for pump-probe simulations of metallic metamaterials coupled to the gain materials. It is of vital importance to understand the mechanism of the coupling of metamaterials with the gain medium. Using a four-level gain system, we have studied light amplification of arrays of metallic split-ring resonators (SRRs) with a gain layer underneath. We find that that the differential transmittance ΔT/T can be negative for SRRs on the top of the gain substrate, which is not expected, and ΔT/T is positive for the gain substrate alone. These simulations agree with pump-probe experiments and can help to design new experiments to compensate the losses of metamaterials.
We demonstrate a nonlinear metamaterial that can be switched between low and high transmission by controlling the power level of the incident beam. The origin of this nonlinear response is the superconducting Nb thin film employed in the metamaterial structure. We show that with moderate RF power of about 22 dBm it is possible to quench the superconducting state as a result of extremely strong current densities at the corners of the metamaterial's split-ring resonators. We measure a transmission contrast of 10 dB and a change in group delay of 70 ns between the low and high power states.
We investigate the potential of transformation optics for the design of novel electromagnetic cavities. First, we determine the dispersion relation of bound modes in a device performing an arbitrary radial coordinate transformation and we discuss a number of such cavity structures. Subsequently, we generalize our study to media that implement azimuthal transformations and we show that such transformations can manipulate the azimuthal mode number. Finally, we discuss how the combination of radial and azimuthal coordinate transformations allows for perfect confinement of subwavelength modes inside a cavity consisting of right-handed materials only.
We analyze single and multilayered metamaterials by modeling each layer as a metasurface with effective surface electric and magnetic susceptibility derived through a thin film approximation. Employing a transfer matrix method, these metasurfaces can be assembled into multilayered metamaterials to realize certain functionalities. We demonstrate numerically that this approach provides an alternative interpretation of metamaterial-based perfect absorption, showing that the underlying mechanism is a modified Fabry-Perot resonance. This method provides a general approach applicable for decoupled or weakly coupled multilayered metamaterials.
Photonic metamaterials are man-made structures composed of tailored micro- or nanostructured metallo-dielectric sub-wavelength building blocks that are densely packed into an effective material. This deceptively simple, yet powerful, truly revolutionary concept allows for achieving novel, unusual, and sometimes even unheard-of optical properties, such as magnetism at optical frequencies, negative refractive indices, large positive refractive indices, zero reflection via impedance matching, perfect absorption, giant circular dichroism, or enhanced nonlinear optical properties. Possible applications of metamaterials comprise ultrahigh-resolution imaging systems, compact polarization optics, and cloaking devices. This review describes the experimental progress recently made fabricating three-dimensional metamaterial structures and discusses some remaining future challenges.
Metamaterials are engineered materials composed of small electrical circuits producing novel interactions with electromagnetic waves. Recently, a new class of metamaterials has been created to mimic the behavior of media displaying electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Here we introduce a planar EIT metamaterial that creates a very large loss contrast between the dark and radiative resonators by employing a superconducting Nb film in the dark element and a normal-metal Au film in the radiative element. Below the critical temperature of Nb, the resistance contrast opens up a transparency window along with a large enhancement in group delay, enabling a significant slowdown of waves. We further demonstrate precise control of the EIT response through changes in the superfluid density. Such tunable metamaterials may be useful for telecommunication because of their large delay-bandwidth products.
Using interplay between surface plasmons and metamaterials, we propose a new technique for novel metamaterial designs. We show that surface plasmons existing on thin metal surfaces can be used to "drive" non-resonant structures in their vicinity to provide new types of electric and magnetic resonators. These resonators strictly adhere to surface plasmon dispersion of the host metal film. The operating frequency of the resultant metamaterials can be scaled to extremely high frequencies, otherwise not possible with conventional split-ring-resonator-based designs. Our approach opens new possibilities for theory and experiment in the interface of plasmonics and metamaterials to harvest many potential applications of both fields combined.
We study the optical force arising when isolated gold nanowire pairs and metamaterials with a gold nanowire pair in the unit cell are illuminated with laser radiation. Firstly, we show that isolated nanowire pairs are subject to much stronger optical forces than nanospheres due to their stronger electric and magnetic dipole resonances. We also investigate the properties of the optical force as a function of the length of the nanowires and of the distance between the nanowires. Secondly, we study the optical force in a metamaterial that consists of a periodic array of nanowire pairs. We show that the ratio of the size of the unit cell to the length of the nanowires determines whether the electric dipole resonance leads to an attractive or a repulsive force, and we present the underlying physical mechanism for this effect.