Extinction properties of a sphere with negative permittivity
and permeability
R. Ruppin*
Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel
Received 17 August 2000; accepted 24 August 2000 by S. Ushioda
Abstract
Extinction spectra of spheres made of materials having dispersive permittivity and permeability are calculated. A dispersion
in the microwave region, similar to that which has recently been achieved in artificial composite media is assumed. When either
the permittivity or the permeability (but not both) is negative, there occurs a band of strong surface polariton absorption.
However, when both quantities are negative, a band of highly suppressed extinction appears in the spectrum. q 2000 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: D. Optical properties; E. Elastic light scattering
PACS: 78.35.1c
A medium for which both the dielectric constant e and the
magnetic permeability m assume negative values will have
peculiar properties. This has been demonstrated theoreti-
cally by Veselago [1]. He has used the term “left-handed”
for such a material, because for a plane wave propagating in
such a medium, ~E £ ~H lies in the direction opposite to that
of the wavevector. Other unusual electrodynamic properties
of left-handed materials are reverse Doppler shift, inverse
Snell effect and reverse Cerenkov radiation [1]. Recently, a
material which is left-handed for frequencies in the micro-
wave range, has been built by combining two dimensional
arrays of split-ring resonators and wires [2]. It is expected
that these techniques will be further developed, so that in the
near future isotropic left-handed materials will also become
available. Here we investigate the electromagnetic scatter-
ing properties of a sphere made of a left-handed material.
Simultaneous negative values of e and m can be realized
only when there exists a frequency dispersion [1]. In our
calculations we therefore employ dispersive forms of e
and m , similar to those that can be attained artificially [2].
We consider a sphere of radius a, having relative permit-
tivity e1
v and relative permeability m1
v; placed in a
medium having real, frequency-independent permittivity
e 2 and permeability m 2. The sphere is irradiated by a
plane wave, and its scattering and absorption properties
can be specified in terms of the Mie coefficients. For these
we employ the most general form, which includes magnetic
effects. In Stratton’s notation [3], they are given by
an 2 m1jn
k1ak2ajn
k2a
0 2 m2jn
k2ak1ajn
k1a 0
m1jn
k1ak2ahn
k2a 0 2 m2hn
k2ak1ajn
k1a 0
1
bn 2 e1jn
k1ak2ajn
k2a
0 2 e2jn
k2ak1ajn
k1a 0
e1jn
k1ak2ahn
k2a 0 2 e2hn
k2ak1ajn
k1a 0
2
Here jn and hn are spherical Bessel and Hankel functions,
respectively, and the primes denote differentiation with
respect to their arguments. The propagation constants of
the sphere and the surrounding medium are k1
e1
vm1
v
p
v=c and k2 e2m2p v=c; respectively. The
extinction cross-section of the sphere, in units of the
geometric cross-section, is given by
Q 2 2
k2a2
X1
n1
2n 1 1 Re
an 1 bn
3
For the sphere dielectric constant we use the plasma-like
Solid State Communications 116 (2000) 411–415
0038-1098/00/$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0038-1098(00)00362-8
PERGAMON
www.elsevier.com/locate/ssc
* Fax: 1972-8943-4157.
E-mail address: ruppin@ndc.soreq.gov.il (R. Ruppin).
R. Ruppin / Solid State Communications 116 (2000) 411–415412
Fig. 1. Real part of the permittivity (lower curve) and the permeability (upper curve) used in the model calculations. The material is left-handed
between 4 and 6 GHz.
Fig. 2. Extinction cross-section of a sphere having a dielectric constant of the form (4), and m1 1: The sphere radius is: (a) 2 cm; (b) 4 cm;
(c) 8 cm.
form
e1
v 1 2
v2p
v
v 1 ig
4
Such a dielectric constant, with the plasma frequency in the
GHz range, can be realized by using a network of thin wires
[4].
For the sphere permeability we employ the following
form, which can be achieved by using a periodic arrange-
ment of split ring resonators [5]:
m1
v 1 2 Fv
2
v2 2 v20 1 ivG
5
In the numerical calculations we use the value vp 10 GHz
for the plasma frequency, and v0 4 GHz for the magnetic
resonance frequency. For the damping parameters the values
g 0:03vp and G 0:03v0 are assumed. For the parameter
F the value of 0.56 has been chosen, so that the band of
negative permeability, which begins at v 0, will extend up to
6 GHz. The frequency dependence of the real part of e 1 and
m 1 is shown in Fig. 1. In all calculations the values e2 1
and m2 1 are used for the surrounding medium.
First, we consider the independent contributions of the
dielectric dispersion and the magnetic dispersion to
the extinction. These we obtain by performing extinction
calculations, once with m1
v 1 and e1
v from Eq. (4),
and once with e1
v 1 and m1
v from Eq. (5).
Fig. 2 shows the extinction spectrum of spheres having a
dielectric constant of the form (4), and no magnetic contri-
bution. The real part of the dielectric constant is negative
over the whole frequency region, and the spectrum consists
of peaks which are due to surface plasmon-polaritons, as has
been discussed previously in the case of small metallic
spheres [6,7], where analogous peaks appear in the visible
or ultraviolet range. The peaks are due to resonances of the
Mie coefficients bl
l 1; 2;…; and they are classified as
surface mode peaks because the corresponding field ampli-
tudes are highest at the surface of the sphere, and they decay
towards its center. In the very small sphere limit (not shown
here) only one peak, due to the l 1 mode, appears. With
increasing sphere size, more and more modes, correspond-
ing to higher l values, contribute to the extinction, and the
spectrum becomes broader and flatter.
Fig. 3 shows the extinction spectrum of spheres having a
permeability of the form (5), and no dielectric contribution.
The peaks, due to magnetic polaritons, are of two types.
Those above v 0 ( 4 GHz) in the region where Re
m1 ,
0; are due to magnetic surface polaritons, resulting from
resonances of the Mie coefficients al. The peaks below v 0,
where Re
m1 . 0; are due to magnetic bulk polaritons. It
can be seen that for small spheres, the surface mode
R. Ruppin / Solid State Communications 116 (2000) 411–415 413
Fig. 3. Extinction cross-section of a sphere having a permeability of the form (5), and e1 1: The sphere radius is: (a) 2 cm; (b) 4 cm; (c) 8 cm.
absorption dominates, and with increasing sphere size the
ratio of bulk to surface mode absorption increases.
Next, we proceed to the case in which both electric and
magnetic contributions are present, i.e. the sphere material is
characterized by e1
v and m1
v given by Eqs. (4) and (5),
respectively. The extinction spectrum of a sphere of radius
5 cm is shown in Fig. 4a. The pure plasmon extinction,
calculated with m1 1 (Fig. 4b), and the pure magnetic
R. Ruppin / Solid State Communications 116 (2000) 411–415414
Fig. 4. Extinction cross-section of a sphere of radius 5 cm: (a) with permittivity and permeability given by Eqs. (4) and (5), respectively; (b)
with permittivity given by Eq. (4) and m1 1; (c) with permeability given by Eq. (5) and e1 1:
Fig. 5. Same as Fig. 4, but for a radius of 10 cm.
extinction, calculated with e1 1 (Fig. 4c), are also shown.
Since the plasmon-like and the magnetic excitations are
roughly independent, we could expect the two extinction
mechanisms to reinforce each other. This is indeed the
case in the low-frequency region below v 0. However, in
the region just above v 0, in which the real parts of both e 1
and m 1 are negative, this does not hold, and instead the two
mechanisms are strongly suppressed. Thus, above about
4 GHz a strong, broad depression appears in the extinction
spectrum. This feature persists when the sphere size is
increased, as demonstrated by Fig. 5, which was calculated
for a sphere of radius 10 cm. The width of the band of
reduced extinction varies with the width of the range of
negative permittivity and permeability. In Fig. 6 the extinc-
tion spectrum of a sphere of radius 7 cm is shown for two
choices of F. The full curve was calculated with F 0:56;
as before. The dashed curve was obtained by using the
reduced value of F 0:21: In the latter case the range of
negative permittivity and permeability extends only up to
4.5 GHz. This leads to a corresponding reduction of the
width of the region of reduced extinction.
Finally, we present the physical interpretation of this
extinction suppression effect. In frequency regions where
either Ree1
v , 0 or Rem1
v , 0; but not both, the
electromagnetic radiation cannot propagate inside the
sphere material. However, it can resonantly excite surface
polaritons, for which the amplitude decays inside the sphere.
When both Ree1
v , 0 and Rem1
v , 0; the medium
becomes transparent to the radiation (except for the small
intrinsic absorption), so that no surface modes exist.
References
[1] V.G. Veselago, Sov. Phys. Uspekhi 10 (1968) 509.
[2] D.R. Smith, W.J. Padilla, D.C. Vier, S.C. Nemat-Nasser, S.
Schultz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 (2000) 4184.
[3] J.A. Stratton, Electromagnetic Theory, McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1941.
[4] J.B. Pendry, A.J. Holden, D.J. Robbins, W.J. Stewart, J. Phys.:
Condens. Matter 10 (1998) 4785.
[5] J.B. Pendry, A.J. Holden, D.J. Robbins, W.J. Stewart, IEEE
Trans. Microwave Theory Tech. 47 (1999) 2075.
[6] R. Ruppin, in: A.D. Boardman (Ed.), Electromagnetic Surface
Modes, Wiley, New York, 1982, p. 345.
[7] U. Kreibig, M. Vollmer, Optical Properties of Metal Clusters,
Springer, Berlin, 1995.
R. Ruppin / Solid State Communications 116 (2000) 411–415 415
Fig. 6. Extinction cross-section of a sphere of radius 7 cm, having permittivity and permeability given by Eqs. (4) and (5), respectively. For the
parameter F, the values of 0.56 (full curve) and 0.21 (dashed curve) have been used.