Features of transmission of electromagnetic waves through composite nanoresonators including epsilon-near-zero metamaterials

Abstract

Transmission of electromagnetic waves through nanometric multilayers (nanoresonators) including a main composite layer made of two alternating strips of low-absorbing dielectrics that is sandwiched between epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) or metallic spacer layers has been modeled. Analytical models are based on exact solutions of electromagnetic boundary problems. The spacers with the definite properties lead to extreme dependences of amplitude transmission coefficients on the system parameters and drastic increase in phase difference of the transmitted waves. These effects are most pronounced for subwavelength multilayer thicknesses due to multibeam interference features in the nanoresonator, and they can be amplified when the main layer and (or) the whole system thicknesses decrease. The investigated transmission features take place under variations of the system parameters such as anisotropy of the main layer materials, non-ideal realization of ENZ materials, oblique incidence of the exciting radiation (for small incidence angles). The obtained results can have applications in development of ultra-thin nanophotonics devices using phase transformation of transmitted waves.