Theory of fishnet negative-index optical metamaterials

Jianji Yang (1) , Christophe Sauvan (2, 1) , Haitao Liu (3) , Philippe Lalanne (1, 2)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Naphel
2 lp2n-03,lp2n-13
3 Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Science and Technology

We theoretically study fishnet metamaterials at optical frequencies. In contrast with earlier works, we provide a microscopic description by tracking the transversal and longitudinal flows of energy through the fishnet mesh composed of intersecting subwavelength plasmonic waveguides. The analysis is supported by a semianalytical model based on surface-plasmon coupled-mode equations, which provides accurate formulas for the fishnet refractive index, including the real-negative and imaginary parts. The model simply explains how the surface plasmons couple at the waveguide intersections, and it shines new light on the fishnet negative-index paradigm at optical frequencies. Extension of the theory for losscompensated metamaterials with gain media is also presented.

Domains: Optics / Photonic; Optics [physics.optics]

Jianji Yang, Christophe Sauvan, Haitao Liu, Philippe Lalanne. Theory of fishnet negative-index optical metamaterials. Physical Review Letters, 2011, 107, pp.043903. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.043903⟩. ⟨hal-00681497⟩