Effects of anisotropic disorder in an optical metamaterial

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 103; no. 3; pp. 591 - 595
• Main Authors: Helgert, C., Rockstuhl, C., Etrich, C., Kley, E.-B., Tünnermann, A., Lederer, F., Pertsch, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.06.2011
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Computer simulation; Condensed Matter Physics; Disorders; Electric dipoles; Machines; Manufacturing; Mathematical models; Metamaterials; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Processes; Spectral response; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Electric Dipole Interaction; Mode Dispersion Relation; Positional Disorder; Optical Metamaterial; Symmetric Resonance
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-010-6190-2

We consider the effect of disorder in one transverse dimension, termed anisotropic disorder, on the optical properties of a metamaterial consisting of cut-wire-pair meta-atoms. The work comprises experimental and numerical studies. The appropriate samples were fabricated and their optical properties quantified in the far-field. For comparison large-scale rigorous numerical simulations were performed. We observe excellent agreement between experiment and theory. Based on our results we reveal how the electric dipole interactions between adjacent meta-atoms affect the overall spectral response of the metamaterial. Our main observation is a polarization-sensitive degradation of the symmetric resonance for anisotropic disorder.