Dispersion and reflection properties of artificial media formed by regular lattices of ideally conducting wires

An analytical theory of electromagnetic waves in artificial media formed by a rectangular lattice of thin ideally conducting cylinders using the local field approach is developed. As a result, the transcendental dispersion equation is obtained in closed form and solved numerically. Typical dispersion curves are calculated. Using these results, the reflection problem from an interface between a half space of wire medium and free space is solved for plane-wave excitation. In the low-frequency approximation a simple analytical formula for the frequency dependent effective dielectric permittivity is established.