Manipulation of Electromagnetic Waves Based on New Unique Metamaterials: Theory & Applications

Metamaterials are typically engineered by arranging a set of unit cells in a regular array throughout a region of space, thus, obtaining some desirable macroscopic electromagnetic behavior. The desired property is often one that is not normally found naturally (negative refractive index, near-zero index, etc.). Over the past few years, the flexibilities of the metamaterials in choosing the numerical value of the effective permittivity or permeability have led to kinds of novel theoretical and practical possibilities for different applications, ranging from microwave to optical regime. In this paper, the theoretical mechanism for constructing metamaterials is described, and the unique feature of electromagnetic waves can be manipulated is verified by their applicability to construct various devices or components Some typical application is given, including: (1) novel RF devices realized by optical transformation principle, such as energy concentrators and universal waveguide connectors; (2) metamaterial-based wave absorbers; (3) gain enhancement approach of aperture antennas by planar metamaterial lenses loaded; (4) ultra-thin lenses with dual-polarization filtering features; and (5) beam tunable antennas by metamaterial device. Undoubtely, the reported results suggest promising applications in the next-generation communication system.