IEICE TRANS. ELECTRON., VOL.E89C, NO.

9 SEPTEMBER 2006

1276

PAPER

Special Section on Metamaterials for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Applications

Novel Two-Dimensional Planar Negative Refractive Index Structure

Naoko MATSUNAGA , Atsushi SANADAa) , and Hiroshi KUBO , Members

SUMMARY A novel purely distributed two-dimensional (2D) planar structure with a negative refractive index (NRI) is proposed. The structure consists of a 2D periodic array of unit cells with metal patterns on the both sides of a substrate. The unit cell with the dimension of 5 5 mm2 is designed at an operation frequency of about 5 GHz by full-wave nite element method simulations. Numerical simulations on the dispersion characteristics are carried out and NRI property of the structure is conrmed. A equivalent circuit taking into account the mutual capacitance between the adjacent ports in the unit cell is introduced, and theoretical investigations based on the equivalent circuit reveals that the anisotropy can be controlled by the mutual capacitance. A 10 20 unit-cell NRI material is fabricated and the NRI property has been conrmed experimentally in excellent agreement with Snells law. key words: metamaterials, negative refractive indices, left-handed materials, anisotropy

1.

Introduction

Materials with simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability are referred to as the left-handed (LH) materials [1] and possess unusual electromagnetic property; for instance, backward wave support, negative refractive index (NRI) property, evanescent wave amplication, and the like. By exploiting the unusual property, totally novel functions or drastic performance improvements are expected in microwave and millimeter-wave circuit device or antenna applications for wireless communication or radar systems [2] [7]. Realization of the LHM is classied into two categories; the resonant type [8] and the non-resonant type [2] [4]. The resonant type LHM is a composite meta-structure of electric and magnetic plasma particles like metallic wires and split-ring resonators, while the non-resonant type LHM is fundamentally the dual of the conventional transmissionline (TL) circuit model. The non-resonant LHM intrinsically has low loss and wide bandwidth characteristics compared with the resonant type LHM, therefore the nonresonant type LHM is preferable from an application point of view. Non-resonant LHMs in two-dimensional (2D) conguration have already been proposed [9], [10]. A 2D LH circuit network using LC lumped elements has been proposed [9]
Manuscript received January 24, 2006. Manuscript revised April 6, 2006. The author is with the Information Technology R&D Center, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Kamakura-shi, 247-8501 Japan. The authors are with the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University, Ube-shi, 755-8611 Japan. a) E-mail: sanada@ieee.org DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e89c.9.1276

and its NRI property has been veried experimentally. A fully distributed planar 2D NRI structure has also been proposed [10]. This structure is an array of unit cells with, so to called, mushroom structure of a metal patch and a via to the ground plane. It has much higher frequency scalability than the LC lumped element LH network. However, this structure still has a fabrication limitation in terms of upper limit of via density and accuracy tolerance of via dimensions. In this paper, a novel 2D planar distributed NRI structure is proposed. The structure consists of a 2D periodic array of unit cells with metal patterns on the both sides of a substrate and it does not require any vias. Without vias, is the structure scalable to millimeter-wave frequency range or above. It is also advantageous that the structure can be fabricated by using conventional MMIC processes. In the following sections, dispersion and NRI characteristics of the proposed structure are calculated numerically by full-wave simulations based on the nite element method (FEM). In order to give an insight into anisotropy property of the structure, an equivalent circuit model for a unit cell taking into account the mutual capacitance between the adjacent ports is introduced and the eect of the capacitance on the isotropy property is discussed. In addition, an experimental verication of the negative refraction at the interface between the proposed structure and a right-handed (RH) parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) is carried out. 2. Proposed Planar 2D NRI Structure

The proposed structure is the planar structure with metal patterns on both the upper and lower layers of the substrate as shown in Figs. 1(a) and (b), respectively. Let us consider a square unit cell with the period a in both the x and y directions for simplicity. The unit cell is depicted with the dotted line in Figs. 1(a) and (b). On the upper layer, are the 45degree rotated square metal patches with the side s. On the lower layer, four isosceles triangles surrounded by a square frame are connected at their apex, and from the connected portion, four narrow metal strips are radially connected to the outer frame in the unit cell. The upper layer pattern lies on the lower layer pattern with the relation shown in Fig. 1(c). The upper metal patch overlaps the isosceles triangles forming an MIM capacitor, which provides a large series capacitance between the adjacent unit cells. The four radial strips bridge the series capacitor and the outer frame. When the area of the outer frame is large enough and has

Copyright c 2006 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers

MATSUNAGA et al.: NOVEL TWO-DIMENSIONAL PLANAR NEGATIVE REFRACTIVE INDEX STRUCTURE

1277

Fig. 1 Proposed 2D NRI structure. (a) Upper layer. (b) Lower layer. (c) Unit cell. (a = 5.0 mm, s = 2.9 mm, wstub = 0.2 mm, lstub = 2.0 mm, wgp = 0.2 mm, ggp = 0.4 mm)

a quasi-ground voltage, the bridging strips work as shunt inductances. The conceptual equivalent circuit for the structure is superimposed in Fig. 1(c). When the series capacitance and the shunt inductance are large enough, the structure is expected to work as a left-handed structure, however, the actual wave propagation in this complex structure has to be carefully considered, which will be discussed in the following sections. 3. Negative Refractive Index Property

Fig. 2 Dispersion characteristics of the NRI structure in the full k x -ky domain (full-wave simulation). (a) Contour plot. (b)Frequency plane plot.

3.1 Dispersion Characteristics In order to discuss wave propagation in the proposed structure, full-wave FEM simulations are carried out using the commercially available software Ansoft HFSS. For the unit cell shown in Fig. 1(c), periodic boundary conditions are applied for the symmetrical planes in the x and y directions, and dispersion characteristics are calculated. In the FEM simulations, the perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary conditions are applied 6.0 mm ( 0 /10) above and below the substrate due to the limitation of the computer resources. Figure 2 shows the dispersion characteristics (frequency versus wave number) of the lowest mode in the full k x -ky domain for the structure with the structural parameters; period a = 5.0 mm, s = 2.9 mm, wstub = 0.2 mm, lstub = 2.0 mm, wgp = 0.2 mm, ggp = 0.4 mm (see Fig. 1). The permittivity and thickness of the substrate are r = 10.2 and h = 0.780 mm, respectively. Figure 3 also shows the dispersion characteristics along the paths between the high symmetry points (k x a = ky a = 0), X (k x a = , ky a = 0), and M (k x a = ky a = ) in the Brillouin zone. It can be seen from
2 Fig. 3 that when = k2 + ky is close to that in the vacuum x k0 (= /c0 ) near the -point, the lowest mode couples to the TM air mode [11] with the dispersion relation f = c0 /(2) when is small. When is large in the -X and -M paths

Fig. 3

Dispersion diagram (full-wave simulation).

( X, M), the group velocity (vg = /) is negative, while the phase velocity (vp = /) is positive, leading to the anti-parallel group and phase velocities (vp vg < 0). Therefore, the structure supports the backward (LH) waves in this region. It is noted that other paths than -X or -M ky , k x 0, ky 0), the gradient of the frequency (k x plot (/k x , /ky ) and the wavenumber vector (k x , ky ) are not anti-parallel anymore as seen in Fig. 2. The phase and energy ow in the dierent directions in this case, leading to strong anisotropy of the structure. Anisotropy of the structure will further be discussed in the following section. The accompanying RH wave (/k x , /ky > 0 when k x , ky > 0) propagates in the higher frequencies above the LH propagation band as see in Fig. 3. In between the LH and RH frequency bands, another propagation band with a quasi-TE mode in which the electric eld is almost parallel to the ground plane exists as seen in Fig. 3. The RH wave as

IEICE TRANS. ELECTRON., VOL.E89C, NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2006

1278

Fig. 4 Refractive indices of the structure calculated from the dispersion characteristics of Fig. 2.

well as the LH wave can be easily excited by the microstrip line or parallel plate waveguide mode (quasi-TEM mode), while the quasi-TE mode can not since they are approximately orthogonal each other. 3.2 Refractive Indices Figure 4 shows the refractive indices calculated from the full-wave simulated dispersion relation of Fig. 2. Since the structure exhibits anisotropy, the refractive index n is calculated by c0 (1) n= vp for typical directions of propagation with = 0, 10, 25, 45 degrees from the k x axis with corresponding vp s in the Brillouin zone (see the inset in Fig. 4). The sign of n is to be taken as negative in the LH frequency range. It can be seen from the gure that the absolute value of n decreases with increasing frequencies, which is a consequence of the intrinsic dispersion of the LH structure. The value |n| also decreases with increasing at a certain frequency; for instance, at 5.37 GHz, the refractive index is in a range of 5.7 < n < 4.2 when 10 < < 45 deg. When 0 < < 10 deg, the wave does not propagate due to the cut-o property in the directions. The anisotropy leads to aberration when the structure is used in the NRI slab lens [12], which should be taken into account in the design of the structure. 4. Anisotropy

Fig. 5 Equivalent circuits. (a) Equivalent circuit of the CRLH TL. (b) Extended equivalent circuit. (c) Four-port-pair network model.

in the unit cell will also change to some extent. In order to simplify the problem and to estimate the pure eect of Cm as a rst step of the anisotropy analysis, we will rely on the circuit analysis. The unit cell model can be expressed in a general form of a four-port-pair network as shown in Fig. 5(c) with a 4 4 (n) transmission matrix F = {Fi j }; Denoting the voltage V x (n) and current I x at the n-th port in the x direction and the volt(n) (n) age Vy and current Iy in the y direction, we have (n) (n+1) Vx Vx (n) (n+1) I x = F Ix (n) (n+1) . (2) Vy Vy (n) (n+1) Iy Iy By using Bloch-Floquet theory, the characteristic equation is given by det(F ) = 0, (3)

In order to have an insight into the anisotropy of the structure and to control the anisotropy, a simple equivalent circuit model extended from the 2D composite right/left-handed (CRLH) TL model [13] is introduced. Figure 5(a) shows the equivalent circuit of the CRLH TL unit cell. Now, let us consider an extended equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 5(b). Here, a mutual capacitance Cm is introduced between each pair of adjacent ports in the unit cell, and a square unit cell is assumed. The mutual capacitance Cm is considered to be signicant when the gap on the upper layer becomes small. However, when the gap becomes small, the other parameters

where, is a 44 diagonal matrix diag[ex a , ex a , ey a , ey a ]. Here, x = x + j x , y = y + jy , and a is the period of the unit cell. The characteristic equation for the structure with the unit cell of Fig. 5(b) taking Cm into account is calculated as in (4) in the top of next page, and the eect of Cm on the anisotropy is studied. It can be shown from (4) that the value of Cm aects the X-point (k x a = , ky a = 0) frequency but does not the M-point (k x a = ky a = ) frequency nor the -point frequency (k x a = ky a = 0). Therefore, it is expected that the anisotropy can be controlled by choosing an appropriate value of Cm to change the X-point frequency. This is conrmed by calculating the dispersion characteristics from (4). Figure 6 shows dispersion characteristics on the k x -ky domain calculated by solving (4) for the case when the mutual capacitance is ignored (Cm = 0). The other parameters are chosen as arbitrary values CL = 0.8 pF, LR =0.7 nH, CR =0.1 pF, and LL =0.07 nH so that the LH frequency band can become approximately the same as that of the simulation results of Fig. 2. Note that Fig. 6 corresponds

MATSUNAGA et al.: NOVEL TWO-DIMENSIONAL PLANAR NEGATIVE REFRACTIVE INDEX STRUCTURE

1279

2Y 1 + Z 1 e jx a Zm Z 2Y 1 + Zm det 0 ZY 1 + e jx a Zm

ZY 1 + e jx a 2 1+ ZY e jx a 2 0 2 e jx a 1

0 ZY 1 + e jy a Zm Z 2Y 1 + 1 e jy a Zm Z 2Y 1 + Zm

0 2 e jy a 1 ZY 1 + e jy a 2 1+ ZY e jy a 2

= 0.

(4)

Fig. 6 Dispersion diagrams (Cm = 0 pF). (a) Contour plot. (b) Frequency plane plot.

Fig. 9

Isotropy factor.

dened as IF =
Fig. 7 Dispersion diagrams (Cm = 0.5 pF). (a) Contour plot. (b) Frequency plane plot.

kdiag , korth

(5)

Fig. 8 Dispersion diagrams (Cm = 2.0 pF). (a) Contour plot. (b) Frequency plane plot.

to the conventional CRLH TL dispersion characteristics. The dispersion characteristics for the case Cm = 0.5 pF and 2.0 pF are also shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively, as a comparison. It can be seen from Fig. 6 that even when Cm is ignored, a certain anisotropy arises which alike what calculated by the full-wave simulation for a real structure shown in Fig. 2 except for the coupling with the air mode when k x and ky are small. When the mutual capacitances Cm s exist as in Figs. 7 and 8, the structure becomes more isotropic and the isotropy enhances with increasing Cm . For instance, in order to quantify the isotropy, the isotropy factor IF is

where kdiag and korth are the wave numbers in the diagonal and orthogonal directions at a certain frequency, and IF for the structure with the unit cell of Fig. 5(b) is calculated in the wave number domain as shown in Fig. 9. The isotropic factor IF is almost unity when korth is small, however, it decreases with increasing korth for any Cm values, leading to the fact that the structure is isotropic near the -point (g = ) and becomes anisotropic as the guided wavelength becomes small (g 2a). When the value of Cm increases, the value of IF increases; i.e. the isotropy is enhanced. The same tendency is obtained with other circuit parameters. Consequently, it can be concluded that the isotropy can be controlled by introducing the mutual capacitance Cm between the adjacent ports in the unit cell. In a practical implementation, individual control of the value of Cm , might be dicult, however, the foregoing result will be helpful for an intuitive design of the 2D NRI structure. 5. Experiments

In order to demonstrate NRI properties of the proposed structure, the structure with the unit cell designed in Sect. 3.1 is fabricated. Figures 10(a) and (b) show the upper and lower layers of the prototype fabricated on a substrate with the relative permittivity r = 10.2 and thickness h = 0.780 mm, respectively. The detailed structural parameters are shown in the caption of Fig. 1. The structure with

IEICE TRANS. ELECTRON., VOL.E89C, NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2006

1280

1020 unit cells is interfaced with a parallel plate waveguide (PPW) with the angle of 15 degrees as shown in Fig. 11 so that the structure can be excited by a quasi-TEM wave with the angle. The width of the PPW is W = 78.1 mm (the characteristic impedance is 1.3 ) and the PPW is fed by a

50 microstrip line at the center through a /4 impedance transformer to reduce a reection at the microstrip to PPW transition. According to the equivalent circuit analysis of Fig. 5, the characteristic impedance of the periodic structure depends much on frequencies and changes from zero to innite in this unbalanced case [10]. However, a certain amount of refracted power can be expected in an LH frequency band around a frequency at which the characteristic impedance of the structure matches with that of the PPW impedance. The length of the PPW is approximately 1.1 g (g is the guided wavelength at the center of the LH band). The other sides of the NRI structure are surrounded by absorbers. The refracted wave is observed by near eld measure-

Fig. 10 layer.

Photographs of the NRI strucure. (a) Upper layer. (b) Lower

Fig. 11 Prototype for the negative refraction experiment. (a) Upper side pattern. (b) Back side pattern.

Fig. 12 Measured electric-eld distribution on the NRI structure. (a) Magnitude and phase at the LH frequency 5.23 GHz. (b) Magnitude and phase at the RH frequency 8.10 GHz. Each phase is normalized by the value at the origin.

MATSUNAGA et al.: NOVEL TWO-DIMENSIONAL PLANAR NEGATIVE REFRACTIVE INDEX STRUCTURE

1281

(a)

(b) Fig. 13 Phase distributions along the x- and y-axes. (a) Phase distributions at the LH frequency 5.23 GHz. (b) Phase at the RH frequency 8.10 GHz. The slope of each graph corresponds to the wave number.

ments using a coaxial probe. In the measurements, enough spaces are taken on above and below the substrate so that guided waves in the structure can not be perturbed. The magnitude and phase distributions of the x-component of the measured electric eld 1.0 mm above the structure in the 35 35 mm2 area indicated in Fig. 11(a) are shown in Figs. 12(a) and (b) for f = 5.23 GHz (LH frequency region) and f = 8.10 GHz (RH frequency region), respectively. Here, the magnitudes are normalized by each maximum value, and the phase references are set at the origin (upper right corner) of the measurement area in Fig. 11. For the LH frequency region of Fig. 12(a), it can be seen from the amplitude distribution that a certain amount of power ows in the NRI structure. It is noted that the phase develops positively as the refracted wave propagates (white to black in the gure of the phase distribution), which leads to the conclusion that the structure supports the backward waves at the frequency. In order to obtain the refraction angle from the measured results, the phases of Fig. 12 are plotted on the x- and y-axes as in Fig. 13. The wave numbers k x and ky can be calculated as the slopes of those graphs as

kx =

, ky = . x y

(6)

The refraction angle r is obtained from k x and ky by r = tan1 ky . kx (7)

From Fig. 13(a), the wave numbers k x and ky are obtained as averages of the slopes of these lines as k x = 274 rad/m and ky = 49 rad/m at the LH frequency 5.23 GHz (the average slope are shown by the thick dotted line in Fig. 13(a)). Therefore, the refraction angle r is obtained as r = 10.3 deg according to (7). The refractive index n is calculated from Snells law as n = nPPW sin i / sin r = 2.69 (nPPW = (r,e,PPW )1/2 = 3.19). On the other hand, the refractive index calculated from (1) is n = c0 /vp = c0 / =
2 c0 k2 + ky / = 2.54. These agree well with each other. x The wave front and the direction of the wave propagation is superimposed in the phase of Fig. 12(a). Incidentally, the simulated frequency band for a wave propagating in the direction with 10 deg is from 5.37 GHz to 5.51 GHz as seen in Fig. 4, while the frequency at which the negative refraction of 10 degrees is observed in the

IEICE TRANS. ELECTRON., VOL.E89C, NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2006

1282

measurement, 5.23 GHz, is slightly lower than the simulated frequency band. However, the frequency obtained by the measurement is considered to be within an error range due to the fabrication and measurement errors. Similarly, at 8.10 GHz in the RH frequency region, the wave number k x and ky are obtained as k x = 249 rad/m and ky = 35 rad/m. The refraction angle r is, therefore, obtained as r = +7.97 deg according to (7). The refractive index n is calculated from Snells law as n = nPPW sin i / sin r = 2.09, which is in a good agreement with that calculated from the refractive index calculated from (1); n = c0 /vp = c0 / = c0 6.
2 k2 + ky / = 1.48. x

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12] [13]

Conclusions

Schultz, Composite medium with simultaneously negative permeability and permittivity, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol.84, no.18, pp.4184 4187, May 2000. A.K. Iyer and G.V. Eleftheriades, Negative refractive index media using periodically L-C loaded transmission lines, IEEE-MTT Intl Symp. Digest, pp.10671070, June 2002. A. Sanada, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, Planar distributed structures with negative refractive index, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol.52, no.4, pp.12521263, April 2004. A. Lai, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, Composite right/left-handed transmission line metamaterials, IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol.5, no.3, pp.3450, Sept. 2004. J.B. Pendry, Negative refraction makes a perfect lens, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol.85, no.18, pp.39663969, Oct. 2000. A. Sanada, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, Characteristics of the composite right/left-handed transmission lines, IEEE Microw. Wirel. Compon. Lett., vol.14, no.2, pp.6870, Feb. 2004.

The novel 2D planar structure with an NRI property has been proposed. The structure with 55 mm2 unit cells operate at 5 GHz band has been designed and their NRI characteristics have been conrmed by calculating dispersion characteristics and refractive indices by full-wave FEM simulations. From the circuit analysis, it has been shown that the anisotropy can be controlled by the mutual capacitance between the adjacent ports of the unit cell. In order to validate the NRI properties of the proposed structure, the experiments on a 1020 unit-cell prototype interfaced with a PPW have also been carried out, and the negative refraction in the LH frequency region have been conrmed by the near eld measurements. The positive refraction in the RH frequency region has also been conrmed, which can be predicted by the CRLH theory [10], [13]. Being a purely distributed and planar structure without using any vertical metallic vias, the structure is advantageous in easy fabrication and high scalability.
References [1] V.G. Veselago, The electrodynamics of substances with simultaneously negative values of and , Soviet Physics Uspekhi, vol.10, no.4, pp.509514, Jan./Feb. 1968. [2] C. Caloz and T. Itoh, Novel microwave devices and structures based on the transmission line approach of meta-materials, IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., pp.195198, June 2003. [3] A.A. Oliner, A periodic-structure negative-refractive-index medium without resonant elements, IEEE-APS/URSI Intl Symp. Digest, p.41, June 2002. [4] A. Grbic and G.V. Eleftheriades, Experimental verication of backward-wave radiation from a negative refractive index material, J. Appl. Phys., vol.92, no.10, pp.59305935, Nov. 2002. [5] H. Okabe, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, A compact enhanced-bandwidth hybrid ring using a left-handed transmission line, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol.52, no.3, pp.798804, March 2004. [6] C. Caloz, A. Sanada, and T. Itoh, A novel composite right/lefthanded coupled-line directional coupler with arbitrary coupling level and broad bandwidth, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol.52, no.3, pp.980992, March 2004. [7] A. Sanada, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, Novel zeroth-order resonance in composite right/left-handed transmission line resonators, Proc. 2003 Asia-Pacic Microwave Conference, pp.15881591, Nov. 2003. [8] D.R. Smith, W.J. Padilla, D.C. Vier, S.C. Nemat-Nasser, and S.

Naoko Matsunaga was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1981. She received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. She is currently with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. Her research interest includes left-handed materials for microwave applications. Ms. Matsunaga is a recipient of the 2006 Young Researchers Award.

Atsushi Sanada received his B.E., M.E. and D.Eng. degrees in electronic engineering from Okayama University, Okayama, Japan, in 1989, 1991 and 1994, respectively. In 1994, he joined the Faculty of Computer Science and System Engineering, Okayama Prefectural University as a Research Associate. In 1999, he joined the Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University where he is now an Associate Professor since 2004. He is now a Visiting Researcher at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR). He was a Visiting Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994 and 2002 and at the NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories in 2005. His research is concerned with metamaterials, high-Tc superconducting microwave devices, magnetostatic wave devices, holographic radar systems and microwave power combining. Dr. Sanada is a member of IEEE.

Hiroshi Kubo received the B.E., the M.E., the D.E. degrees in computer science & communication engineering from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, in 1978, 1980, and 1993, respectively. In 1980 he joined Nippon Electric Company, Tokyo, Japan where he was engaged in development on mobile communication system. From 1987 to 1991, he was a Research Associate at Kyushu University. Since 1991 he has been with Yamaguchi University, Ube, Japan where he is now an associate professor. His main area of research interest is radio communication network and microwave communication devices. Dr. Kubo is a member of IEEE and IEEJ.