Design and analysis of wavelength tunable metamaterial reflector

This paper reports the design and performance characteristics of perfect reflector tunable metamaterial (MTM). The reported MTM parameters are optimized to achieve nearly 100 % reflection at resonance wavelength (λr) 1550 nm. The propagation characteristic of the proposed MTM structure was obtained by the finite element method (FEM). The electromagnetic parameters such as effective permittivity (εeff.), effective permeability (µeff.), and effective refractive index (ηeff.) are calculated using Nicolson-Ross-Weir (NRW) method and analysed for the 1400–1700 nm wavelength range. It has been observed that the proposed MTM structure exhibits µ-negative (MNG) metamaterial characteristics as well as a negative effective refractive index at λr. Further, it has also been shown that by varying the number of arrays of unit cells and using a mirror image of the unit cell, the operating wavelength can be easily tuned as required for different applications. The overall perfect reflectance and the tunable performance of the proposed MTM has a potential applications in the design and development of compact photonic devices such as optical resonators and antennas.