Analytical theory of wave propagation through stacked fishnet metamaterials

This work analyzes the electromagnetic wave propagation through periodically stacked fishnets from zero frequency to the first Wood's anomaly. It is shown that, apart from Fabry-Perot resonances, these structures support two transmission bands that can be backward under the appropriate conditions. The first band starts at Wood's anomaly and is closely related to the well-known phenomena of extraordinary transmission through a single fishnet. The second band is related to the resonances of the fishnet holes. In both cases, the in-plane periodicity of the fishnet cannot be made electrically small, which prevents any attempt of homogenization of the structure along the fishnet planes. However, along the normal direction, even with very small periodicity transmission is still possible. An homogenization procedure can then be applied along this direction, thus making that the structure can behave as a backward-wave transmission line for such transmission bands. Closed-form design formulas will be provided by the analytical formulation here presented. These formulas have been carefully validated by intensive numerical computations. (c) 2009 Optical Society of America