Verification of impedance matching at the surface of left-handed materials

Impedance matching at the surface of left-handed materials (LHM) is required for certain applications including a perfect lens. In this study, we present the experimental and theoretical verification of an impedance-matched LHM to free space. Reflection characteristics of both one-dimensional and two-dimensional LHM were investigated. The reflection was observed to be very low at a narrow frequency range. FDTD simulations and retrieval procedures were used to theoretically verify impedance matching. By varying the number of layers along the propagation direction, the ultralow reflection at specific frequencies was shown to be independent of the sample thickness. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.