Eur. Phys. J. D 58, 243-247 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-00120-x

A method to determine effective metamaterial properties based on stratified metafilms

Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

Corresponding author: johara@lanl.gov

Received: 22 March 2010
Revised: 8 April 2010
Published online: 5 May 2010

Abstract

Metamaterials' properties may be quantified through the assignment of bulk material parameters such as magnetic permeability and electric permittivity. These assignments rely on the assumption that metamaterials are effective media, in this context meaning that their electromagnetic properties are independent of the sample size. This assumption is not always valid, particularly for metafilms, the surface equivalents of metamaterials. However, metamaterials comprised of numerous metafilm and dielectric layers can be uniquely characterized in the effective medium approximation when all aspects of the metamaterial are properly integrated. We present a simple model based on stratified systems to illustrate this fact. The model further assists in the interpretation of novel metamaterial behaviors and offers a rapid and accurate method to determine the functionality of bulk metamaterial-based devices.