Loss-free and active optical negative-index metamaterials

Shumin Xiao, Vladimir P. Drachev, Alexander V. Kildishev, Xingjie Ni, Uday K. Chettiar, Hsiao-Kuan Yuan and Vladimir M. Shalaev ()
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Shumin Xiao: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Vladimir P. Drachev: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Alexander V. Kildishev: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Xingjie Ni: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Uday K. Chettiar: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Hsiao-Kuan Yuan: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Vladimir M. Shalaev: Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University

Nature, 2010, vol. 466, issue 7307, 735-738

Abstract: Metamaterials: accentuate the negative Much research activity is being devoted to the design and fabrication of metamaterials, artificially tailored composites with the counter-intuitive optical property of a negative refraction index. There is an exciting and wide range of possible applications that could be developed with such negative-index materials, including invisibility cloaks and 'perfect' lenses, but a major hurdle is that the performance is severely limited by absorption losses. Vladimir Shalaev and colleagues now demonstrate an approach that could lead to a breakthrough in this area; they have incorporated an optical gain medium within the metamaterial as a way to compensate the intrinsic loss, and show that optical pumping leads to a significantly improved negative refraction index and performance-related figure-of-merit at visible wavelengths. The study confirms that it is possible to design an optical metamaterial that is not limited by the intrinsic loss of its metal constituent.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09278

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