Loss-compensated and active hyperbolic metamaterials

Author

• Xingjie Ni, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue UniversityFollow
• Satoshi Ishii, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue UniversityFollow
• Mark D. Thoreson, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
• Vladimir M. Shalaev, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue UniversityFollow
• Seunghoon H. Han, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology
• Sangyoon Lee, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology
• Alexander V. Kildishev, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue UniversityFollow

Abstract

We have studied the dispersion relations of multilayers of silver and a dye-doped dielectric using four methods: standard effective-medium theory (EMT), nonlocal-effect-corrected EMT, nonlinear equations based on the eigenmode method, and a spatial harmonic analysis method. We compare the validity of these methods and show that metallic losses can be greatly compensated by saturated gain. Two realizable applications are also proposed. Loss-compensated metal-dielectric multilayers that have hyperbolic dispersion relationships are beneficial for numerous applications such as subwavelength imaging and quantum optics. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America

Keywords

NEGATIVE-INDEX METAMATERIALS; OPTICAL HYPERLENS; SURFACE-PLASMONS; GAIN; SUPERLENS; RANGE; LAYER; LENS

DOI

10.1364/OE.19.025242

Citation

Optics Express Vol. 19, Issue 25, pp. 25242-25254 (2011)

Date of this Version

12-5-2011

Recommended Citation

Ni, Xingjie; Ishii, Satoshi; Thoreson, Mark D.; Shalaev, Vladimir M.; Han, Seunghoon H.; Lee, Sangyoon; and Kildishev, Alexander V., "Loss-compensated and active hyperbolic metamaterials" (2011). Birck and NCN Publications. Paper 922.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.025242