Effective-medium properties of a free-space transmission-line metamaterial superlens

Abstract

This work discusses the validity of the effective-medium interpretation of the multilayer negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterial superlens using supporting simulation and experimental data. The uniqueness of its extracted effective permittivity and permeability is verified through a comparison of simulation data for lenses of different thicknesses, and simulations of negative refraction for various angles of incidence illustrate that an effective-medium perspective is justified. Experimental results for subdiffraction imaging are corroborated by the theory governing the relationship between loss, resolution, and bandwidth.