Enhancement of evanescent waves in waveguides using metamaterials of negative permittivity and permeability

Electromagnetic waves in waveguides consisting of metamaterials with negative permittivity and permeability are analyzed. It is found that metamaterials can enhance the intensity of the evanescent waves in the cladding without altering the propagation constant of the waveguide for both TE and TM modes. This is a unique property of metamaterials. The enhancement factor increases with the increasing of the thickness of the metamaterial and saturates when complete surface polaritons were established at the interface between the metamaterial and the cladding. The enhancement effect can improve the performance of evanescent-wave-based waveguide devices. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.