Abstract

Metamaterials (MMs) are man-made materials possessing properties that are not available in nature. The propagating light in such MMs may experience new and unforeseen properties. The most promising approach to realize optical MMs is to take advantage of structural resonances within (predominantly) metallic nanostructures. On the one hand, up to now mostly the linear propagation characteristics were at the focus of research. On the other hand, exactly these metallic nanostructures, operated in resonance, also promise to enhance nonlinear optical effects due to the high electrical field concentration achievable within very small volumes[l]. This is exactly the issue on which our work focuses on.

© 2009 IEEE