Effective permeability of a metamaterial: Against conventional wisdom

摘要

A method for finding the effective permeability of metamaterials is presented, based on the interaction between electromagnetic and magnetoinductive waves. Assuming a coupled circuit model for the interaction, a dispersion equation is derived that exhibits two types of bandgaps, one leading to complex solutions and the other to purely evanescent waves. Although losses are disregarded, the effective permeability (in contrast to established theories) is shown to have an imaginary part in part of the stop band, while its real part remains finite in both the pass band and the stop band.