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OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 34, No. 15 / August 1, 2009

Oblique response of a split-ring-resonator-based
left-handed metamaterial slab
Kamil Boratay Alici* and Ekmel Ozbay
Nanotechnology Research Center, Department of Physics, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Bilkent University, Bilkent, 06800 Ankara, Turkey
*Corresponding author: bora@fen.bilkent.edu.tr
Received June 2, 2009; accepted June 25, 2009;
posted July 7, 2009 (Doc. ID 112278); published July 22, 2009
We experimentally studied the transmission response of a one-dimensional rectangle-prism-shaped
metamaterial slab for oblique incidence angles. The electrical size of the split-ring resonators was 1 order of
magnitude smaller than the operation wavelength ⬃8.5 cm. We demonstrated that the left-handed transmission peak preserved up to an angle of incidence 45°. The angular measurements were performed with
respect to two lateral directions. The confirmed insensitivity of split-ring-resonator-based metamaterials to
the angle of incidence makes them a good candidate for superlens applications. © 2009 Optical Society of
America
OCIS codes: 160.3918, 160.4670, 260.5740.

A narrowband negative permeability medium, which
utilizes the resonant nature of the shaped metal–
dielectric compositions [1], was reported in the microwave regime by Smith et al. [2]. By incorporating periodically arranged thin wires [3] into this negative
permeability medium they demonstrated a composite
metamaterial with a negative index of refraction [1].
Thereby, the available matter-wave interactions were
extended, and designs of metamaterials with a controllable effective medium response at several frequency bands of electromagnetic spectrum were realized [4–9].
Metal–dielectric-based metamaterials are demonstrated to operate for normal incidence at around
5 GHz [1], 10 GHz [4,5], 100 GHz [6], 5 THz [7],
100 THz [8], and 370 THz [9] by scaling the physical
size of the constituting resonators and wires. However, owing to the ohmic losses the magnetic resonance of the elements saturate, it is rather difficult to
verify the negative index concepts at the visible regime [10]. Moreover, the fabrication of such metallic
shapes that have linewidths of several tens of nanometers is a challenging task. Some recent designs
increased the operation frequency but at the expense
of effective medium concepts. They used elements of
electrical size that are comparable to the operation
wavelength [11]. To be able apply the effective medium characterization methods to the designed
metamaterials, several points should be kept in
mind. First, the electrical size of the resonators are to
be at least 1 order of magnitude smaller than the operation wavelength. Second, the number of metamaterial layers at the propagation direction should be
large enough that the parameters permeability and
permittivity are meaningful. Third, the metamaterial
should have an invariant response for oblique incidence, especially for the exciting applications such as
subwavelength imaging and the focusing of light.
In the present Letter, we focus on the response of a
split-ring-resonator (SRR)-based composite metamaterial. The results are presented at the S band for the
case when the incident beam has a nonzero incidence
0146-9592/09/152294-3/$15.00

angle. First, we introduce our design and structure
parameters, and then we show the results of the
qualitative effective medium theory (QEMT) characterization method. The frequency dependent response of a three-layered composite metamaterial,
which was illuminated with an oblique angle with respect to two bases, will be shown experimentally.
The studies for the characterization of metamaterials by using scattering parameters started just after the first experimental demonstration [2]. There
are two well-defined methods to determine whether a
metamaterial slab is of negative index from the S parameters: (i) the standard retrieval analysis [12,13]
and (ii) the transmission-based QEMT [14]. For the
standard retrieval analysis, normal incidence complex transmission and the reflection coefficients of a
metamaterial slab need to be measured precisely.
Then, by comparing the complex S parameters of this
metamaterial medium with S parameters of a homogeneous slab, an effective index 共n兲 and impedance
共z兲 can be assigned to the metamaterial medium.
Careful implementation of this method yields index,
impedance, and thereby permittivity 共␧ = nz兲 and permeability 共␮ = n / z兲 at the frequency band of interest.
Retrieval analysis is rather difficult compared with
the QEMT, in which only the transmission measurements are necessary. For this characterization
method at least four different structures need to be
fabricated: (i) negative permeability medium composed of electrically small resonators; (ii) doublenegative medium with incorporated continuous
wires; and (iii), (iv) their shorted versions. From the
transmission response of these four structures, the
double-negative nature of the metamaterial can be
determined.
The electrically small resonator part of the designed unit cell is shown in Fig. 1. At the microwave
frequencies, we prefer to utilize the printed circuitboard technology for the fabrication of the metamaterial samples. By etching the metal-coated substrates
as desired, SRR shapes were obtained with following
parameters: the strip width, w = 0.9 mm; the separa© 2009 Optical Society of America

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Fig. 1. (Color online) (a) Unit cell parameters. (b) Schematic of the experiment setup when the metamaterial slab
was rotated with respect to the y direction.

tion between the adjacent strips, s = 0.2 mm; the split
width, g = 0.2 mm; the outer ring radius, r1 = 3.6 mm;
and the inner ring radius, r2 = 2.5 mm. The period of
the resonators at the y and z directions was l
= 8.8 mm. The substrate was FR-4 with relative permittivity, ␧ = 3.75, and the dissipation factor, tan ␦
= 0.002. The thickness of the substrate was 1.6 mm,
and the deposited copper thickness was 30 ␮m. On
the back side of the substrate, centered continuous
wires were fabricated with a width of w = 0.9 mm.
The QEMT analysis was performed numerically by
using CST-MWS. The unit cell of the medium was illuminated by a normally incident plane wave, and
the transmitted signal was obtained via point field
probes. The SRR medium transmission spectra had a
stop band at around the resonance frequency. When
we measured the transmission response of its
shorted version (sh-SRR) the stop band disappeared,
demonstrating the fact that the resonance was magnetically originated. For the sh-SRR, the split width
is zero 共g = 0兲, and thereby the capacitance of the SRR
is shorted. We conclude this part of the QEMT by
stating that at around the magnetic resonance frequency, the medium has negative effective permeability 共␮ ⬍ 0兲. In the second part, we incorporate continuous wires and simulate the transmission
response of the composite metamaterial (CMM). In
this case, we see a transmission band at around the
resonance frequency and inspect its double-negative
origin. If it was so, the transmission band needed to
disappear for the sh-CMM case, in which we had shSRRs instead of SRRs and the permeability was not
negative. As can be seen in Fig. 2, below the plasma
frequency of the sh-CMM medium there was no
transmission band, which implies the double negativity of the designed CMM metamaterial. In general,
the QEMT method is preferred if the fabrication of
the four different media can be processed easily.
As we have in fact confirmed that our metamaterial has a negative index of refraction 共n ⬍ 0兲 at the
double-negative transmission band, we can start
demonstrating the results of the oblique illumination
study. In Fig. 1(b) a schematic of the experiment
setup for the rotation with respect to the y direction
is shown. Standard microwave horn antennas were
used as the source and sink of the radiation. We measured the transmission response for a spectrum of incidence angles by using an N5230A Vector Network

Fig. 2. (Color online) Results of the QEMT. Transmission
response of the SRR medium and its shorted version (shSRR), and the CMM and its shorted version (sh-CMM) are
shown.

Analyzer and a computer-controlled rotary stage. We
have shown the results of two different measurements: (i) a CMM slab of three layers at the propagation direction, which was rotated with respect to the
y-axis with an angle ␪ ranging from 0° to 45°, and (ii)

Fig. 3. (Color online) (a) Experimental transmission spectra as a function of frequency and angle of incidence ␪ for
the three-layered composite metamaterial are shown. The
angle ␪ corresponds to rotation with respect to the y axis.
(b) Experimental transmission phase data for selected incidence angles 0°, 15°, 30°, 45° and corresponding simulation
for 0° incidence angle.

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OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 34, No. 15 / August 1, 2009

the three-layered CMM that was rotated with respect
to the x axis with an angle ␣ ranging from 0° to 45°.
Figure 3(a) shows that as the angle of incidence increased from 0° to 45°, the negative transmission
band remained with only a minor change: peak
transmission value had changed on the order of 1 or
2 dB. Moreover, as the angle of incidence increased a
narrower and slightly shifted double-negative band
was observed. Its response remained nearly the same
at a considerable fraction of the frequency band. In
Fig. 3(b) we plotted the experimental transmission
phase advance for selected incidence angles: 0°, 15°,
30°, 45°, and related simulation for 0°. At the negative band, as the incidence angle increased the behavior of the transmission phase remained almost
the same, in good agreement with the simulation. In
Fig. 4(a), we show the results for the three-layered
case when the incidence angle was varied with respect to the x axis. The change of the response at the
frequency band and angular domain are minor. In
this case, the SRRs were excited both magnetically
and electrically; therefore, we saw a strengthened
transmission response as the angle ␣ increased. At
this point, we would like to clarify that the transmission peak for this oblique incidence is indeed due to
double-negative nature. When the incidence angle
with respect to the x axis was 45°, we simulated the

response of finite length continuous wire array and
the sh-CMM. There were 20 x-axis unit cells, infinitely periodic y-axis unit cells, and three unit cells
at the propagation direction. In Fig. 4(b) we show
that the plasma frequency of the finite-length shCMM medium is around 6.5 GHz. Thus our metamaterial has negative permittivity for the oblique incidence with respect to the x axis below 6.5 GHz. As we
have a transmission band and negative permittivity
at around the resonance frequency in Fig. 4, the medium’s permeability has to be negative, as expected.
In summary, we systematically studied a doublenegative three-layered metamaterial slab oblique response and showed that the negative index characteristics remain nearly the same up to incidence
angle of 45°. The negative transmission band remained almost the same for two different bases of rotation. The insensitivity of SRR-based metamaterials
to the angle of incidence makes them a good candidate for metamaterial applications, especially the superlens.
This work is supported by the European Union under the projects EU-METAMORPHOSE, EUPHOREMOST, EU-PHOME, and EU-ECONAM, and
TUBITAK under the project numbers 105E066,
105A005, 106E198, and 106A017. One of the authors
(E. O.) also acknowledges partial support from the
Turkish Academy of Sciences.
References

Fig. 4. (Color online) (a) Transmission spectra as a function of the frequency and angle of incidence ␣ for the threelayered composite metamaterial are shown. The angle ␣
corresponds to rotation with respect to the x axis. (b) Simulated transmission response of a semi-infinite continuous
wire array and CCMM for the incidence angle of 45°.

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