2010/01/31 by Christoph Menzel, Andrei Andryieuski, Carsten Rockstuhl +5 · 25 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies #Condensed matter physics #Cube (algebra) #Dispersion relation #Geometry #Isotropy #Materials science #Mathematics #Metamaterial #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Optics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Radio Wave Propagation Studies #Refractive index #Symmetry (geometry) #Work (physics) #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.81.195123
published in Physical Review B 81(19) (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2010/01/31 · openalex publication_date 2010/05/25 · arxiv updated 2015/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Optically isotropic metamaterials (MMs) are required for the implementation of subwavelength imaging systems. At first glance one would expect that their design should be based on unit cells exhibiting a cubic symmetry being the highest crystal symmetry. It is anticipated that this is a sufficient condition since it is usually assumed that light does not resolve the spatial details of MM but experiences the properties of an effective medium, which is then optically isotropic. In this work we challenge this assumption by analyzing the isofrequency surfaces of the dispersion relation of the split cube in carcass negative index MM. We show that this MM is basically optically isotropic but not in the spectral domain where it exhibits negative refraction. The primary goal of this contribution is to introduce a tool that allows to probe a MM against optical isotropy.