Coherent and incoherent metamaterials and the order-disorder transitions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of metamaterials exhibiting collective resonant behavior that is sensitive to disorder, drawing parallels with phase transitions and the Mossbauer effect.

Contribution

It presents the concept of coherent metamaterials and explores how disorder affects their resonant properties, linking physical phenomena to phase transition theories.

Findings

Coherent metamaterials show narrow resonant responses.

Disordering leads to resonance broadening and disappearance.

Analogies with phase transitions and Mossbauer effect are established.

Abstract

We demonstrate a new class of "coherent" metamaterials, where a regular ensemble of meta-molecules shows a collective, i.e. coherent, narrow band resonant response, while disordering the ensemble leads to broadening and eventually disappearance of the resonance. We draw parallels between the observed collective behavior of meta-molecules and the Mossbauer effect and notice certain remarkable similarities with the phase transitions of ferromagnetic systems.