Abstract
Interlaced metallic meshes form a class of three-dimensional metamaterials that exhibit nondispersive, broadband modes at low frequencies, without the low frequency cutoff typical of generic wire grid geometries. However, the experimental observation of these modes has remained an open challenge, both due to the difficulties in fabricating such complex structures and also because the broadband mode is longitudinal and does not couple to free-space radiation (dark mode). Here we report the first experimental observation of the low frequency modes in a block of interlaced meshes fabricated through 3D printing. We demonstrate how the addition of monopole antennas to opposing faces of one of the meshes enables coupling of a plane wave to the low frequency “dark mode” and use this to obtain the dispersion of the mode. In addition, we utilize orthogonal antennas on opposite faces to achieve polarization rotation as well as phase shifting of radiation passing through the structure. Our work paves the way toward further experimental study into interlaced meshes and other complex 3D metamaterials.
Highlights
Three-dimensional structures constructed from thin metal wires have been central to the field of metamaterials since its origins
One of the earliest key discoveries in the field was that a grid or mesh of thin, electrically conductive wires behaves like a low density plasma, or dilute metal, with a plasma frequency that is tunable via the structural parameters of the grid.[1,2]
These interlaced meshes have shown the potential to behave as non-Maxwellian media, a metamaterial where the ef fective medium described in the low-frequency limit does not conform to Maxwell’s equations[12] and affords new ways to control the dispersion of radiation traversing a 3D material
Summary
Three-dimensional structures constructed from thin metal wires have been central to the field of metamaterials since its origins. Any antenna in any orientation (as long as there is an electric field component of the incident wave parallel to the antenna) can be used to excite the modes of the double mesh and likewise any antenna of any orientation can be used to couple light out This makes the structure an efficient converter of electromagnetic energy to different polarization states, which has applications in imaging, sensing, and beam shaping.[24−26]. It can be clearly seen that there is a phase shift of π in the outgoing radiation between the two structures
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