We discuss the optical properties metal nanoforests - a composite metamaterial in which silver nanowires are aligned inside a finite-thickness dielectric host medium. Using finite-element modelling and a self-consistent extraction of effective-medium parameters, we find that this structure can enable an effective optical diamagnetic response that is orders of magnitude stronger compared to that of naturally occurring diamagnetic materials. Our analysis reveals that there is a frequency region where the nanoforest exhibits strong diamagnetic response while simultaneously allowing for high transmission of incident electromagnetic waves. Our analysis shows that the phenomena are robust to the presence of disorder, in the occurrence of which it can still facilitate high figure-of-merit diamagnetic responses.

Date Published: 1 September 2009
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7392, Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications II, 73921I (1 September 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.828722

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7392:
Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications II
Mikhail A. Noginov; Nikolay I. Zheludev; Allan D. Boardman; Nader Engheta, Editor(s)