Effective medium theory for anisotropic metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper develops an effective medium theory for anisotropic metamaterials that accurately predicts their electromagnetic properties beyond the long-wavelength limit, validated by band structure calculations and practical demonstrations.

Contribution

It introduces a closed-form analytical solution for anisotropic effective parameters applicable beyond traditional long-wavelength approximations.

Findings

The theory recovers Maxwell-Garnett results in the quasi-static regime.

It remains valid when the wavelength is comparable to the lattice size.

A real anisotropic near-zero index medium was successfully designed and tested.

Abstract

We present an effective medium theory that can predict the effective permittivity and permeability of a geometrically anisotropic two-dimensional metamaterial composed with a rectangular array of elliptical cylinders. It is possible to obtain a closed-form analytical solution for the anisotropic effective medium parameters if the aspect ratio of the lattice and the eccentricity of elliptical cylinder satisfy certain conditions. The derived effective medium theory can recover the well-known Maxwell-Garnett results in the quasi-static regime. More importantly, it is valid beyond the long-wavelength limit, where the wavelength in the host medium is comparable to the size of the lattice so that previous anisotropic effective medium theories fail. The validity of the derived effective medium theory is verified by band structure calculations. A real sample of a recent theoretically proposed anisotropic medium with near-zero index to control flux is achieved from the derived effective medium theory and control of electromagnetic waves in the sample is clearly demonstrated. The accuracy of the theory is further systematically studied as material and geometric parameter varies, and we find the derived effective medium theory applies over a large range in the parameter space. Such applicability greatly broadens the applicable realm of the effective medium theory and opens many vistas in the design of structures with desired anisotropic material characteristics.