In-plane propagation of electromagnetic waves in planar metamaterials

Abstract

Some planar metamaterials (MMs) or subwavelength antenna/hole arrays have a considerable amount of in-plane propagation when certain conditions are met. In this paper, the in-plane propagation caused by a wave incident on a MM absorber was studied by using a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. By using a FDTD simulation, we were able to observe a nonnegligible amount of in-plane propagation after the incident wave had arrived at the surface of the planar structure and gradually decreased propagation of the electromagnetic wave in the planar direction gradually decreased. We performed the FDTD simulation carefully to reproduce valid results and to verify the existence of in-plane propagation. For verification of the in-plane propagation explicitly, Poynting vectors were calculated and visualized inside the dielectric substrate between the metallic back-plate and an array of square patches. We also investigated several different structures with resonators of various shapes and found that the amount of facing edges of adjacent metallic patches critically determined the strength of the in-plane propagation. Through this study, we could establish the basis for the existence of in-plane propagation in MMs.