Planar bilayer metamaterial with left-handed transmission and negative refraction at microwave frequencies

A planar composite metamaterial consisting of bilayers of metal cutwire pairs and long wire pairs which are separated by a thin dielectric layer is designed and fabricated for microwave frequencies. The simulated and experimentally measured transmission spectra of the metamaterial and its individual components (cutwire-only and wire-only) indicates that the metamaterial exhibits a transmission band within the common stop bands of its components, and thus acts as a medium with negative index of refraction. The existence of n < 0 is further supported by a refraction experiment.