Periodic layered metal-dielectric nanostructures are used in subwavelength imaging, invisibility cloaking, nano-lithography and optical nanocircuitry. These optical metamaterials are usually described by local effective medium model if their periods are much smaller than a wavelength. Our studies show that even under such strict conditions the metamaterials are nonlocal and exhibit strong spatial dispersion effects. The uniaxial media support two or more extraordinary waves in certain directions while the local effective model predicts only one. The strong spatial dispersion is caused by surface plasmon polariton modes at the interfaces between metal and dielectric layers.A

Date Published: 10 September 2010
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 7754, Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications III, 77540E (10 September 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.860175

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7754:
Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications III
Allan D. Boardman; Nader Engheta; Mikhail A. Noginov; Nikolay I. Zheludev, Editor(s)