Left-handed metamaterials: An overview.

Nonlinear Physics Group, RSPhysSE, The Australian National University

3.30pm, Friday 28 June 2002, Seminar Room (AR103), Graduate Research Centre, Swinburne

These days, we observe a growing interest in the study of a new type of composite materials possessing both negative dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability. In such materials, electromagnetic waves are backward or left-handed; that is why these unusual composites are called left-handed materials. The unconventional properties of the electromagnetic waves result in the extraordinary phenomena such as negative refraction and perfect lensing, predicted theoretically and recently observed experimentally for microwaves. Similar effects are observed in photonic crystals. The study of such meta-materials would allow creating perfect lenses without resolution limit and many other useful devices for optical applications.

Back to 2002 programme