Authors

Z. A. Kudyshev; M. C. Richardson;N. M. Litchinitser

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Nat. Commun.

Keywords

NEGATIVE REFRACTION; LASER-PULSE; FILAMENTS; NANOWIRES; MEDIA; Multidisciplinary Sciences

Abstract

Microwave beam transmission and manipulation in the atmosphere is an important but difficult task. One of the major challenges in transmitting and routing microwaves in air is unavoidable divergence because of diffraction. Here we introduce and design virtual hyperbolic metamaterials (VHMMs) formed by an array of plasma channels in air as a result of self-focusing of an intense laser pulse, and show that such structure can be used to manipulate microwave beams in air. Hyperbolic, or indefinite, metamaterials are photonic structures that possess permittivity and/or permeability tensor elements of opposite sign with respect to one another along principal axes, resulting in a strong anisotropy. Our proof-of-concept results confirm that the proposed virtual hyperbolic metamaterial structure can be used for efficient beam collimation and for guiding radar signals around obstacles, opening a new paradigm for electromagnetic wave manipulation in air.

Journal Title

Nature Communications

Volume

4

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

7

WOS Identifier

WOS:000326470400001

ISSN

2041-1723

Download

Share

COinS