Development of metamaterials with desired broadband optical properties

The development of metamaterials that possess desired optical properties over a spectral band is a problem of fundamental importance; its solution could considerably improve the performance of many existing optical devices and allow new devices. Dealing with nanostructured metal/dielectric composites (subwavelength photonic crystals) with a specified spatial configuration, within the framework of the effective medium theory, we obtain an approximation for their effective permittivity. Then, making use of this approximation, we propose a scheme for designing above metamaterials. As practically important particular examples, we consider quasi-one-dimensional metamaterials with ultralow refractive index, a high absorption, and those possessing pass-band filtering properties. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4746400]