An efficient way to reduce losses of left-handed metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to reduce losses in left-handed metamaterials by adjusting effective parameters, notably increasing the L/C ratio, which enhances performance especially at high frequencies.

Contribution

It presents a simple technique to lower losses in metamaterials through parameter manipulation, focusing on the L/C ratio to improve the figure of merit at THz and optical frequencies.

Findings

Increasing L/C ratio reduces losses

Loss reduction is effective in fishnet and short-wire structures

Figure of merit improves significantly at high frequencies

Abstract

We propose a simple and effective way to reduce the losses in left-handed metamaterials by manipulating the values of the effective parameters R, L, and C. We investigate the role of losses of the short-wire pairs and the fishnet structures. Increasing the effective inductance to capacitance ratio, L/C, reduces the losses and the figure of merit can increase substantially, especially at THz frequencies and in the optical regime.