Properties of left-handed metamaterials: Transmission, backward phase, negative refraction, and focusing

Four properties related to left-handed metamaterials are studied numerically: transmission within a stop-band, backward phase, negative refraction, and partial focusing. The unit cell of the metamaterial under study is composed of a rod and a ring originally proposed at infrared frequencies and redesigned here at microwave frequencies. We show that this ring, because of its symmetry, exhibits a better transmission in a parallel-plate waveguide than the original concentric split-ring resonator. Negative refraction is studied from a prism-shaped metamaterial, while all of the other properties are studied from a slab-shaped metamaterial. In particular, transmission and backward phase are studied on a slab where rings naturally couple with the incident wave, while partial focusing is studied on a slab of rings perpendicular to the direction of propagation. The numerical simulations are based on a two-dimensional periodic method of-moments, whose Green's function is computed via Ewald's method, and a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain technique.