Simulation of Dispersion and Hyperbolic Wave in Metal–Dielectric Layered Metamaterial

Application ID: 120711


The modal dispersion in a metamaterial can be engineered by changing the type of material and dimension of the composing unit cells. For instance, a periodically organized subwavelength metal–dielectric layered metamaterial exhibits an anisotropic dispersion characteristic in the momentum space. Within a specific frequency range, this type of structure possesses electric permittivities of opposite signs in the orthogonal optical axes. This means that it behaves as a metal (i.e., inductive L) along one axis and dielectric (i.e., capacitive C) in the orthogonal direction. The resulting (L-C) resonance generates a hyperbolic-like dispersion in the momentum space.

In this example model, a visible frequency plasmonic hyperbolic metamaterial is constructed using periodically organized Ag (10 nm thickness) and SiO2 (15 nm thickness). The hyperbolic mode is excited using a point dipole source, located at a distance 25 nm above the metamaterial.

Learn more in this related blog post: Modeling a Hyperbolic Wave in a Metal–Dielectric Layered Metamaterial

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: