A compact structure for energy localization using a thin grounded left-handed medium slab

Abstract

A new compact structure is presented in this paper to localize electromagnetic energies using a thin grounded left-handed medium (LHM) slab. For a perfectly-matched LHM slab with negative permittivity -epsilon0 and negative permeability - micro0 backed with a conducting plane, we have shown rigorously that all electromagnetic fields excited by a current source, which is located in front of the slab at a distance of the slab thickness, are completely confined in a region between the source and the conducting plane, and the fields outside the region are zero. Hence, it is an ideal energylocalization system, and the electromagnetic energies can be localized in any small regions as required using such a system. However, it has been known that the perfectly matched LHM is unphysical and it does not exist in nature. Hence, we have further studied the lossy and retardation effects of the LHM slab on the energy localization. Most remarkably, electromagnetic waves remain strongly localized even when small losses are taken into account, as demonstrated by numerical simulations.