Split ring resonator-based left-handed coplanar waveguide

In this letter, a planar left-handed propagating medium consisting of a coplanar waveguide (CPW) inductively coupled to split ring resonators (SRR) and periodically loaded with narrow metallic wires is proposed. The wires make the structure behave as a microwave plasma with a negative effective permittivity which covers a broad frequency range. The negative permeability required to achieve left-handed wave propagation is provided by the rings in the vicinity of their resonant frequency. The result is a structure which allows negative wave propagation in a narrow frequency band. The transmission coefficient measured in a fabricated prototype device exhibits very low insertion losses in the pass band and high-frequency selectivity. Since rings are much smaller than signal wavelength at resonance and can be easily tuned, SRR-CPW-based structures are of interest for the design of very compact microwave circuits based on left handedness. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.