Electromagnetic Enhancement in Lossy Optical Transition Metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper explores how lossy optical transition metamaterials can produce significant electromagnetic field enhancement, influenced by material properties, transition layer width, and polarization, with potential applications in nanophotonics.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time that lossy optical transition metamaterials can achieve substantial field enhancement based on experimentally obtained material parameters.

Findings

Field enhancement is polarization-dependent.

Material properties and transition layer width significantly influence enhancement.

Lossy transition metamaterials can be engineered for strong electromagnetic field amplification.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of anomalous field enhancement in metamaterials where the effective refractive index gradually changes from positive to negative values, i.e. transition metamaterials. We demonstrate that considerable field enhancement can be achieved in lossy optical transition metamaterials that have electromagnetic material properties obtained from experimental data. The field enhancement factor is found to be polarization-dependent and largely determined by the material parameters and the width of the transition layer.