Caltech develops simpler negative-index metamaterial

In other words, this material bends light in the ’wrong’ direction from what would normally be expected, irrespective of the angle of the approaching light.

This new type of negative-index metamaterial (NIM) is simpler than previous NIMs, which used multiple layers of ’resonant elements’ to refract the light.

Instead, it requires only a single layer of silver permeated with waveguide elements that route coupled waves of surface plasmons – or light waves coupled to waves of electrons at the interface between the material’s surface and air – through the material.

Yet it is claimed to be more versatile in that it can handle light with any polarisation over a broad range of incident angles.

’It can do all of this in the blue part of the visible spectrum, making it the first NIM to operate at visible frequencies,’ said graduate student Stanley Burgos, a researcher at the Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion Energy Frontier Research Center at Caltech.