Negative-index metamaterials: looking into the unit cell.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 20518537.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/nl100943e.
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Abstract
With their potential for spectacular applications, like superlensing and cloaking, metamaterials are a powerful class of nanostructured materials. All these applications rely on the metamaterials acting as a homogeneous material. We investigate a negative index metamaterial with a phase-sensitive near-field microscope and measure the optical phase as a function of distance. Close to the metamaterial we observe extremely large spatial phase variations within a single unit cell which vanish on a 200 nm length scale from the sample. These deviations of a state-of-the-art metamaterial from a homogeneous medium can be important for nanoscale applications.