A two-dimensional disordered magnetic metamaterial

Abstract

We study the effect of a resonant frequency disorder on the eigenstates and the transport of magnetic energy in a two-dimensional (square) array of split-ring resonators (SRRs). In the absence of disorder, we find the dispersion relation of magneto-inductive waves and the mean square displacement (MSD) in closed form, showing that at long times the MSD is ballistic. When disorder is present, we consider two types: the usual Anderson distribution (uncorrelated monomers) and 2×2 units assigned at random to lattice sites (correlated tetramers). This is a direct extension to two dimensions of the one-dimensional random dimer model (RDM). For the uncorrelated case, we see saturation of the MSD for all disorder widths, while for the correlated case we find a disorder window, inside which the MSD does not saturate at long times, with an asymptotic sub-diffusive behavior MSD∼t0.26. Outside this disorder window, the MSD shows the same kind of saturation as in the monomer case. We conjecture that the sub-diffusive behavior is a remanent of a weak resonant transmission of a 2D plane wave across a tetramer unit.