Tiago A. Morgado

Generalized additional boundary conditions for wire media

We generalize additional boundary conditions (ABCs) for wire media by including arbitrary wire junctions with impedance loading. Special attention is given to the conditions at the interface of two uniaxial wire media with metallic patches at the junction. The derived ABCs are validated against full-wave numerical simulations.

Transport of an arbitrary near-field component with an array of tilted wires

In this work, we investigate the possibility of near-field transport using an array of tilted metallic wires. It is demonstrated that consistent with the results reported in Belov et al (2006 Phys. Rev. B 73 033108), which describes subwavelength imaging by an array of metallic wires normal to the interface, the setup considered here may enable the transport of the subwavelength details of a given source through an oblique projection. The array of tilted wires permits the transfer of the electric field component parallel to the wires at the image plane, even when there is no electric field normal to interface, and thus the manipulation of other near-field components (i.e. other wave polarizations) that are not accessible with the usual setup of wires normal to the interface. The emergence of negative refraction due to the extreme anisotropy of structured material is also demonstrated.

Ultrahigh Casimir interaction torque in nanowire systems

We study the Casimir torque arising from the quantum electromagnetic fluctuations due to the interaction of two interfaces in a system formed by a dense array of metallic nanorods embedded in dielectric fluids. It is demonstrated that as a consequence of the ultrahigh density of photonic states in the nanowire array it is possible to channel the quantum fluctuations, and thereby boost the Casimir torque by several orders of magnitude as compared to other known systems (e.g., birefringent parallel plates).

Negative refraction and partial focusing with a crossed wire mesh: Physical insights and experimental verification

We experimentally verify that a flat metamaterial lens formed by nonconnected crossed metallic wires enables the partial focusing of electromagnetic waves, as a consequence of the phenomenon of all-angle broadband negative refraction in such media. We prove that the strength of the negative refraction effect can be controlled by adjusting the angle between the crossed wires.

Uniaxial indefinite material formed by helical-shaped wires

We demonstrate that a racemic array of helical-shaped metallic wires may be regarded as a local uniaxial epsilon-negative (ENG) material even when the metal conductivity is very large (e.g. in the microwave regime) and, as a result, enables strong negative refraction over a wide frequency range. Based on the negative refraction effect, we demonstrate partial focusing of p-polarized electromagnetic radiation using a planar lens formed by such a composite material. The results reported here are supported by full-wave simulations as well as by analytical calculations based on effective medium theory.

Analytical Solution for the Stopping Power of the Cherenkov Radiation in a Uniaxial Nanowire Material

We derive closed analytical formulae for the power emitted by moving charged particles in a uniaxial wire medium by means of an eigenfunction expansion. Our analytical expressions demonstrate that, in the absence of material dispersion, the stopping power of the uniaxial wire medium is proportional to the charge velocity, and that there is no velocity threshold for the Cherenkov emission. It is shown that the eigenfunction expansion formalism can be extended to the case of dispersive lossless media. Furthermore, in the presence of material dispersion, the optimal charge velocity that maximizes the emitted Cherenkov power may be less than the speed of light in a vacuum.

Negative Landau Damping in Bilayer Graphene

We theoretically demonstrate that a system formed by two coupled graphene sheets enables a negative damping regime wherein graphene plasmons are pumped by a direct current. This effect is triggered by electrons drifting through one of the graphene sheets and leads to wave instabilities and a spontaneous light emission (spasing) in the midinfrared range. It is shown that there is a deep link between the drift-induced instabilities and wave instabilities in moving media, as both result from the hybridization of oscillators with oppositely signed frequencies. With a thickness of a few nanometers and wide spectral tunability, the proposed structure may find interesting applications in nanophotonic circuitry as an on-chip light source.

Spatially Confined UHF RFID Detection With a Metamaterial Grid

The confinement of the detection region is one of the most challenging issues in Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. Here, we propose a new paradigm to confine the interrogation zone of standard UHF RFID systems. Our approach relies on the use of an all-planar metamaterial wire grid to block the radiation field (i.e., the far-field) of the reader antenna, and thereby obtain a spatially well-confined detection region in the near-field. This solution is analytically and numerically investigated, and then experimentally verified through near-field and tag-reading measurements, demonstrating its effectiveness and robustness under external perturbations.

Single-interface Casimir torque

It is shown that the quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field generally induce a torque at the interface of an anisotropic material with another anisotropic or isotropic material. It is proven that this torque depends on an interface zero-point energy determined by the dispersion of the interface (localized and extended) modes. Our theory demonstrates that the single-interface torque is essential to understand the Casimir physics of material systems with anisotropic elements and determines the equilibrium positions of the system.

Reversed rainbow with a nonlocal metamaterial

One of the intriguing potentials of metamaterials is the possibility to realize a nonlocal electromagnetic reaction, such that the effective medium response at a given point is fundamentally entangled with the macroscopic field distribution at long distances. Here, it is experimentally and numerically verified that a microwave nonlocal metamaterial formed by crossed metallic wires enables a low-loss broadband anomalous material response such that the refractive index decreases with frequency. Notably, it is shown that an electromagnetic beam refracted by our metamaterial prism creates a reversed microwave rainbow.