On achieving pure electromagnetic left-handedness through magnetodielectric field compression

Abstract

The relationship between electromagnetic phase and power flow in metamaterials composed of periodic magnetodielectric inclusions is investigated. The distribution of Poynting vectors in $k$ space across multiple Brillouin zones suggests that backward phase is a result of field compression within the inclusions, and that left-handedness can be achieved without negative electric or magnetic susceptibility (i.e., without out-of-phase dipole moments). This hypothesis is verified by showing that a one-dimensional periodic array of magnetodielectric slabs can be designed to mimic the properties of an ideal (homogeneous) left-handed medium. Furthermore, using exact fields and without any field averaging, it is shown that the structure can be designed such that practically all power is carried in the fundamental left-handed spectral component. In the limit where the fundamental contains all the power, this periodic structure has the same spectral power signature as that of a homogeneous left-handed medium. It is shown that this congruence does not manifest when the inclusions are purely dielectric, nor does it manifest for magnetodielectric inclusions in two or three dimensions.