Tunneling and filtering characteristics of cascaded ε-negative metamaterial layers sandwiched by double-positive layers

In this paper, we examine the electromagnetic (EM) wave tunneling and filtering characteristics of multi-layer structures composed of an arbitrary number of epsilon-negative (Epsilon-negative or ENG) metamaterial layers sandwiched by very thin double-positive (DPS) layers with high dielectric constant values. We explain the phenomenon of EM wave tunneling through this propagation barrier by drawing an analogy between this problem and a generalized coupled resonator system. Using this analogy, we demonstrate that a multi-layer structure composed of N DPS layers (N >= 2 is an integer number) that sandwich N-1 ENG layers can not only be made transparent in a frequency range where the ENG layers are normally opaque but also be designed to provide a desired spectral filtering characteristics. Furthermore, we present an analytical method for synthesizing such multi-layer spectral filters from the characteristics of their desired responses. The proposed synthesis procedure can be used to develop spatial filters operating throughout the microwave and mm-wave frequency bands as well as multi-layer metallo-dielectric filters at optical wavelengths. We demonstrate the validity of the proposed analytical synthesis method using full-wave numerical electromagnetic simulations. Finally, using the duality principle, we expand these analytical results to the problem of EM wave tunneling through multiple mu-negative layers surrounded by thin DPS layers with high relative permeability values. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3673796]