A Left-Handed Dipole Concept

Abstract

Left-handed materials, which exhibit simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability, were first investigated theoretically by Veselago in 1968 [1]. Since they were successfully implemented with split ring resonators and wire strips [2], left-handed materials have been applied for microwave applications, transmission lines [3], couplers [4], resonators [5], phase shifters [6] and the like. With regard to antennas, backfire-to-endfire leaky wave antennas [7][8] were developed. An infinitesimal dipole immersed in left-handed material has been studied theoretically, [9], and beyond this there have been no other publications on use of left handed materials for small antennas to the best of the authors knowledge. We propose a new concept involving the use of left-handed material in a small dipole antenna. The concept and simulated radiation properties are presented.