Negative group-delay assisted anomalous propagation in stacked Split Ring Resonator array

Abstract

This paper explores a novel method to achieve negative group delay-assisted anomalous propagation without significant signal attenuation using stacked Split-Ring Resonator (SRR) array in the microwave regime. A sub-wavelength stacking thickness between the SRR layers creates transverse magnetic dipole moments due to the excitation of anti-parallel currents on these layers resulting in increased transmission amplitude. Multipole scattering theory has been utilized to extract the reason behind anomalous propagation by evaluating the scattered power from the principal electric and magnetic dipole moments excited on the structure. Time-domain analysis are performed on the samples, and negative group delay behavior is confirmed by observing the precedence of the output electromagnetic Gaussian pulse within the anomalous dispersion regime. The coupling effects are studied numerically using full-wave solvers and verified in experiments by performing transmission measurements inside an anechoic chamber.