Observation of negative refraction and negative phase velocity in left-handed metamaterials

We report the transmission characteristics of a two-dimensional (2D) composite metamaterial (CMM) structure in free space. At the frequencies where left-handed transmission takes place, we experimentally confirmed that the CMM structure has effective negative refractive index. Phase shift between consecutive numbers of layers of CMM is measured and phase velocity is shown to be negative at the relevant frequency range. Refractive index values obtained from the refraction experiments and the phase measurements are in good agreement. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.