The magical world of photonic metamaterials

Abstract

The progress made in the field of photonic metamaterials including their use in subwavelength imaging, super lenses, perfect lenses and cloaking, is presented. Using the coupled nanostructures with various dimensions, metamaterials that exhibited magnetic response at optical frequencies across the entire visible spectrum are created. The integration of nanowires and coupled nanostrips create a double negative medium and the complex refractive index of the metamaterials can only be numerically calculated by applying retrieval methods to the reflectance and transmittance characteristics. Metallic photonic-crystal-based metamaterials can support propagating waves with large wave vectors that are evanescent in air or dielectrics, enabling the manipulation of visible light at the subwavelength scale. photonic metamaterials are usually fabricated by well-established 2D fabrication technologies, such as electron-beam lithography, focused ion beam etching, evaporation of metal films.