Metamaterials: transforming theory into reality

Metamaterials constitute a new area of science that is expanding our fundamental understanding of the behavior of the propagation of electromagnetic waves and their interactions, and providing new solutions for a wide range of applications from optical communications and defense to biological imaging. In this brief review, we focus on recent progress in theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies of linear and nonlinear optical properties of negative index materials and in the emerging field of transformation optics. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America