University of Arizona researchers discovered a new active metamaterial that integrates semiconductors into conventional metamaterial structures yet retains negative refraction and has increased power gain.
Dr. Hao Xin, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona, said that according to the experimentation and simulation results the gain hhas been increased and the negative index of these metamaterials has been maintained by adding battery supported semiconductor diodes. Xin added on that these active materials can also be used in other optical frequency applications apart from its application in manufacturing of antennas and microwave circuits. Xin also said that the dissipation loss in these materials is the main restriction to their applications in real time, but practically this loss can be compensated with gain in the microwave domain. Xin concluded that this information proves that this material can find its application in optical gain systems.
Xin’s research is published titled Active microwave negative-index metamaterial transmission line with gain," in Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society’s journal, by Tao Jiang, Kihun Chang, Li-Ming Si, et al.
These new metamaterials are composite substances, which deliver distinct properties like negative refraction index, flexibility to bend and redirection of light instead of reflection. A detailed experiment on engineering processes of these materials says that these metamaterials can be used in advanced applications such as lens development, design of microwave antennas and circuits used in sensing and wireless technology.
Source: http://engr.arizona.edu/