Effect of negative permittivity and permeability in the transmission of electromagnetic waves through a left-handed material waveguide

Abstract

We investigate the characteristics of electromagnetic wave transmission by multilayered structures consisting of a pair of left-handed material (LHM) and dielectric slabs inserted between two semi-infinite dielectric media. The theoretical aspect is based on Maxwell's equations and matching the boundary conditions for the electric and magnetic fields of the incident waves at each layer interface. We calculate the reflected and transmitted powers of the multilayered structure taking into account the widths of the slabs and the frequency dependence of permittivity and permeability of the LHM. The obtained results satisfy the law of conservation of energy. We show that if the semi-infinite dielectric media have the same refractive index and the slabs have the same width, then the reflected power can be minimized and the transmittance-frequency curve shows no ripple. On the other hand if the semi-infinite dielectric media have different values of refractive indices and the slabs have different widths, then under certain conditions the reflected power can be maximized.