Self-induced torque in discrete uniaxial metamaterials

Abstract

We consider a torque acting on an electric dipole placed in anisotropic uniaxial metamaterial. The metamaterial is modeled as a cubic lattice of uniaxial polarizable particles. The torque arises from the response of the anisotropic structure polarized by the field of the test dipole. We calculate the self-induced torque taking into account the effects of frequency and spatial dispersion and also the effect of losses. We demonstrate that the maximal absolute values of the torque are achieved in the transition region between elliptic and hyperbolic dispersion regimes of the metamaterial.