Metamaterials.

Metamaterials are artificially engineered

materials capable of producing a negative
refractive index. The metamaterials are
assemblies of multiple individual elements
formed from conventional materials but are
fashioned
into
repeating
patterns
of
microscopic structure. The metamaterials do
not
derive
the
properties of the
component
materials
rather
they are based on
the
exactingly
designed structure.
Relying on their
precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and
arrangement, the mertamaterials affect the
waves of light or sound. The primary research
into metamaterials deal with reversing the
refractive index and the creation of
superlenses that greatly exceed current
standards for optical resolution, such are the
possibilities of metamaterials.

Reversing the refractive index makes use of a

specific type of metamaterial called the
negative index metamaterial or negative
index material. The negative index material or
NIM is a structure of metamaterial capable of
possessing a negative value over a negative
frequency range. The NIMs are constructed
out of basic unit cells made from circuit board
materials.
The NIMs were first theorized by a Russian
scientist Victor Veselago and he proposed that
these materials would exhibit properties
opposite those of glass, air and other media.
The NIMs are also often referred to as left
handed materials. The discovery of NIMs
poses very important questions: To what
extent are all the laws and formulas of
electrodynamics, optics, and related technical
sciences valid, when n is negative? Can we
always simply change the sign to negative as,
for example, in the case of Snell law? In
general, the answer to this question is
negative. Many laws and equations of

electrodynamics and optics

correspond to the case
nonmagnetic materials with
permeability = 1. The

nonmagnetic approach
leads to many formulas
that drastically change
for permeability = 1.

References:
Negative Refractive Index Materials, Victor
Veselago, Leonid Braginsky, Valery Shklover,
and
Christian
Hafner;
Journal
of
Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience
Vol.3, 130, 2006