Homogenization of epsilon near zero composite metamaterials (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

Epsilon Near Zero (ENZ) metamaterials are interest for a broad range of applications in optoelectronics, communication and photovoltaic. Composite metal-dielectric metamaterials can be designed to exhibit ENZ in a specific frequency range. However, the frequency range if the ENZ is oftentimes limited. Recently, we developed a few different routs to designs metal-dielectric metamaterials with a broadband ENZ in the visible and infrared frequency domain. In this talk, I will present a homogenization theory for 1D and 2D metamaterials based on a few different geometries of metal-dielectric composites. Our approach is conceptually simple, elegant, and technically feasible, while its underlying physics is clear. We use a homogenization technique to estimate the real part of the effective permittivity nulling for a few different geometries of metal-dielectric composites. The design of broadband epsilon-near-zero metamaterials have been demonstrated through the solution of an inverse problem. Furthermore, we consider a few different geometries for realization of a broadband ENZ, such as core-shell spherical nanoparticle and nano-cylinders.