Optical negative refraction in bulk metamaterials of nanowires.
Negative refraction in metamaterials has generated great excitement in the scientific community. Although negative refraction has been realized in microwave and infrared by using metamaterials and by using two-dimensional waveguide structures, creation of a bulk metamaterial showing negative refraction at visible frequency has not been successful, mainly because of the significant resonance losses and fabrication difficulties. We report bulk metamaterials made of nanowires that show such negative refraction for all incident angles in the visible region. Moreover, the negative refraction occurs far from any resonance, resulting in a low-loss and a broad-band propagation at visible frequencies. These remarkable properties can substantially affect applications such as imaging, three-dimensional light manipulation, and optical communication.
Yao
Jie
J
National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 5130 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1740, USA.
Liu
Zhaowei
Z
Liu
Yongmin
Y
Wang
Yuan
Y
Sun
Cheng
C
Bartal
Guy
G
Stacy
Angelica M
AM
Zhang
Xiang
X