Spatial Harmonics and Homogenization of Negative-Refractive-Index Transmission-Line Structures

In this paper, we discuss negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterial structures with respect to spatial harmonics. The power in the fundamental spatial harmonic is shown to yield a measure that relates to the homogeneity of the metamaterial. It is shown that NRI-TL metamaterials yield highly homogeneous field distributions if both the unit cell is short compared to the guided wavelength, and if the unloaded unit cell is short compared to the "free space" wavelength. Based on the homogeneity, we provide practical design choices for NRI-TL metamaterial unit cells. Under the restriction of a high homogeneity we derive expressions for extracting an effective permittivity and permeability. Circuit theory results and full-wave eigenmode simulations of two NRI-TL structures are presented.