Two dimensional modelling of the interaction between electromagnetic waves and plasma-metamaterial composite structures using the particle-in-cell method

TL;DR

This paper extends 1D models of EM wave interaction with plasma-metamaterial composites into 2D, demonstrating wave blocking by barriers that could be useful for applications like cloaking and material processing.

Contribution

It introduces a 2D particle-in-cell simulation approach to study electromagnetic wave blocking in plasma-metamaterial structures, expanding previous 1D analyses.

Findings

Plasma-metamaterial composites can block EM waves in 2D configurations.

Standing waves form at the edges of opaque regions, leading to damping.

Potential applications include wave control, cloaking, and material processing.

Abstract

In this work we (i) extend previous 1D studies of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation in an over-dense plasma-metamaterial composite into two spatial dimensions and (ii) study blocking of EM waves by the composite 2D structures (barriers). Such barriers are formed when metamaterial spatially co-exists with a plasma density depletion in a form of a slab or two-dimensional density rectangular depletions (DRDs). This is analogous to EM wave trapping by preformed density cavities in near-critical density plasmas, studied before. We find that plasma-metamaterial composite allows to block EM waves by both slab and DRD configurations, thus forming a standing wave at the edge of an opaque region. The standing wave subsequently damps which offers applications such as heat deposition or substrate materials (micro)machining depending on EM wave intensity. The established results may find future applications such as: more efficient plasma vapour deposition, controlling EM wave propagation (EM wave blocking) in invisibility cloaks and alike. The EM wave blocking conditions are elucidated by a set of particle-in-cell (PIC) numerical simulations.