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A d.c. magnetic metamaterial

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 295–297 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Electromagnetic metamaterials1,2,3 are a class of materials that have been artificially structured on a subwavelength scale. They are currently the focus of a great deal of interest because they allow access to previously unrealizable properties such as a negative refractive index4. Most metamaterial designs have so far been based on resonant elements, such as split rings5, and research has concentrated on microwave frequencies and above. Here, we present the first experimental realization of a non-resonant metamaterial designed to operate at zero frequency. Our samples are based on a recently proposed template6 for an anisotropic magnetic metamaterial consisting of an array of superconducting plates. Magnetometry experiments show a strong, adjustable diamagnetic response when a field is applied perpendicular to the plates. We have calculated the corresponding effective permeability, which agrees well with theoretical predictions. Applications for this metamaterial may include non-intrusive screening of weak d.c. magnetic fields.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram showing the layers of square superconducting plates combined into a tetragonal lattice.
Figure 2: Implementation of the metamaterial design.
Figure 3: The effective d.c. susceptibility dm/dH as a function of gap size and sample orientation.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this work was financially supported under EPSRC GR/T03802.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK

    F. Magnus, B. Wood, J. Moore, K. Morrison, G. Perkins, M. C. K. Wiltshire, D. Caplin, L. F. Cohen & J. B. Pendry

  2. European Research, Kodak Limited, 332 Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0WN, UK

    J. Fyson

  3. Imaging Sciences Department, Imperial College London, Ducane Road, London W12 0NN, UK

    M. C. K. Wiltshire

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  1. F. Magnus
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  5. G. Perkins
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  6. J. Fyson
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  7. M. C. K. Wiltshire
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Correspondence to B. Wood.

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Magnus, F., Wood, B., Moore, J. et al. A d.c. magnetic metamaterial. Nature Mater 7, 295–297 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2126

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