OPEN Effective medium theory for anisotropic

SUBJECT AREAS:
metamaterials
PHOTONIC CRYSTALS Xiujuan Zhang & Ying Wu
METAMATERIALS
APPLIED MATHEMATICS Division of Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
(KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.

Received
2 September 2014 Materials with anisotropic material parameters can be utilized to fabricate many fascinating devices, such as
hyperlenses, metasolids, and one-way waveguides. In this study, we analyze the effects of geometric
Accepted anisotropy on a two-dimensional metamaterial composed of a rectangular array of elliptic cylinders and
16 December 2014 derive an effective medium theory for such a metamaterial. We find that it is possible to obtain a closed-form
Published analytical solution for the anisotropic effective medium parameters, provided the aspect ratio of the lattice
and the eccentricity of the elliptic cylinder satisfy certain conditions. The derived effective medium theory
20 January 2015
not only recovers the well-known Maxwell-Garnett results in the quasi-static regime, but is also valid beyond
the long-wavelength limit, where the wavelength in the host medium is comparable to the size of the lattice
so that previous anisotropic effective medium theories fail. Such an advance greatly broadens the applicable
Correspondence and realm of the effective medium theory and introduces many possibilities in the design of structures with
requests for materials
desired anisotropic material characteristics. A real sample of a recently theoretically proposed anisotropic
medium, with a near-zero index to control the flux, is achieved using the derived effective medium theory,
should be addressed to and control of the electromagnetic waves in the sample is clearly demonstrated.
Y.W. (ying.wu@kaust.
edu.sa)

M
etamaterials, that is, artificial materials that possess unconventional material parameters, have been
employed to achieve unprecedented functionality in the control of electromagnetic and acoustic waves,
such as negative refraction1–3 and superlensing4,5. One prominent class of metamaterials is anisotropic
metamaterials6, the material parameters of which are not scalars but tensors, with their principle components
taking different values. This property causes the dispersion relations to display elliptic or hyperbolic shapes7. Such
anisotropic metamaterials exhibit distinctive properties, including negative refraction8,9, super-resolution in the
far-field through image magnification10, and enhanced spontaneous emission11. When one principle component
in the material parameter tensor changes sign, a topological transition occurs12–13. Earlier this year, Luo et al.
proposed a method to arbitrarily control electromagnetic flux using a type of anisotropic medium. In this method,
only one principle component is near zero and the other components take positive values14. However, a real
sample of such a medium is yet to be reported.
The unconventional material parameters of a metamaterial are based on the following two premises: (1) the
structure has a subwavelength nature and (2) the metamaterial has local resonances in its building blocks. The
subwavelength scale allows the heterogeneous material to be considered as a homogenized effective medium,
whereas local resonances lead to exotic values of the effective medium parameters that are rarely or never
observed in nature. The existence of resonances poses a considerable challenge to conventional effective medium
theories (EMTs), such as the well-known Maxwell-Garnett theory and the Bruggeman theory15. This is because
the basic principle of a conventional EMT is to minimize the scattering at the quasi-static limit, while the local
resonances usually occur in or even beyond the long-wavelength regime. In the long-wavelength regime, the
wavelength in the host medium (l0) is large compared to the size of the unit cell, but the wavelength in the
scatterer (ls) can be very small16. In contrast, both l0 and ls should be much larger than the size of the unit cell in
the quasi-static limit.
Efforts have been made to extend conventional EMTs to higher frequency (or short wavelength) regimes. For
example, a coherent potential approximation (CPA) method has been applied to both electromagnetic and elastic
waves to enlarge the applicability range of the EMTs17,18. Equivalent results were also obtained by taking full
account of the interactions among the scatterers using the multiple-scattering formalism19,20. In addition, a
rigorous approach based on the Floquet representation was proposed to homogenize metamaterials with periodic
arrays of dielectric inclusions21–23. Later, this approach was generalized to incorporate both dielectric and mag-
netic materials, and a first-principles homogenization scheme was developed from dyadic Green’s functions and
polarizability coefficients. An analytical solution was obtained for periodic systems with isotropic unit cells24,25.

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Very recently, a method based on reproducing the lowest orders of

scattering amplitudes from a finite volume of metamaterials was
proposed. This can give accurate predictions of the effective medium
parameters over almost the entire Brillouin zone26. These schemes
work well for isotropic media in which both the scatterers and the
lattice structures are isotropic. For anisotropic media, however, the
homogenization scheme is more challenging, as it involves more
degrees of freedom than in the case of isotropic media. Many con-
ventional anisotropic EMTs are extensions of the Maxwell-Garnett
theory7,27–29 and are consequently limited in application to the quasi-
static regime. A multiple-scattering-based scheme has been intro-
Figure 1 | (a) Schematic unit cell and (b) microstructure based on
duced to study the effective medium properties of metamaterials
coherent potential approximation. The proposed 2D periodic system is
with anisotropic lattices and isotropic scatterers30,31, yielding a scalar
composed of elliptic cylinders embedded in a rectangular lattice.
bulk modulus and tensorial mass density at finite frequencies in the
long-wavelength regime. There exist other schemes that are also
applicable to anisotropic scatterers, including the field-averaging32,33, in the average cell is fixed to that of the metamaterial. The aspect ratio
boundary-integration13,34, and parameter-retrieving methods35–38. of the average cell should also equal that of the rectangular unit cell,
The field-averaging and boundary-integration methods require prior i.e., a0/b0 5 a/b, in order to preserve the symmetry properties. With
knowledge of field distributions, while the parameter-retrieving this average cell, the anisotropic property of the metamaterial is
method requires information about the transmission and reflection maintained and the scattering property in the effective medium is
I I
coefficients and may give non-unique solutions. More importantly, correctly produced. The effective medium parameters (e eff ,meff ) are
none of these three methods offer a closed-form analytical solution obtained when the total scattering of the average cell vanishes in the
that can directly predict reliable effective medium parameters from 1
the material and geometric information of the system. limit keff (a0 zb0 )vv1. In the Method section, we present detailed
2
In this work, we consider a rectangular array of elliptic cylinders steps to derive the EMT of the metamaterial for a transverse-electric
embedded in air and study its scattering properties. We discover that (TE)-polarized wave, in which the electric field is parallel to the
the special properties of elliptic coordinates and Mathieu functions elliptic cylinders (~ E~(0,0,Ez )). Here, we refer only to the final
(solutions to Helmholtz equations in elliptic coordinates) enable us to solutions, which are expressed as
derive a closed-form analytical solution for the anisotropic effective
medium parameters, provided the aspect ratio of the lattice and the J’e0 (q0 ; j0 )
eeff z2e0
eccentricity of the elliptic cylinder satisfy certain conditions. We verify k20 a0 b0 Je0 (q0 ; j0 ) Ye0 (q0 ; j0 ) De0 (0)
~ , ð1aÞ
the derived EMT by comparing its predictions with full-wave band- Ye0 ’ (q0 ; j0 ) iJe0 (q0 ; j0 ) 1zDe0 (0)
structure simulations, and excellent agreements are found at finite eeff z2e0 2
k0 a0 b0 Ye0 (q0 ; j0 )
frequencies beyond the long-wavelength limit. This new EMT suggests
promising opportunities to expand the design of anisotropic metama-
a0 Jo1 (q0 ; j0 )
terials. We show that a recently theoretically proposed anisotropic meff ,x {m0
near-zero material, which can manipulate electromagnetic flux, can b0 J 0o1 (q0 ; j0 ) Y 0o1 (q0 ; j0 ) Do1 (0)
~ , ð1bÞ
be achieved from the predictions of the derived EMT. The metama- a0 Yo1 (q0 ; j0 ) iJ 0o1 (q0 ; j0 ) 1zDo1 (0)
meff ,x {m0
terial is composed of common dielectric materials with simple struc- b0 Y 0o1 (q0 ; j0 )
tures, which makes the fabrication process feasible and would
therefore greatly benefit the practical realization of the material. and
b0 Je1 (q0 ; j0 )
meff ,y {m0
Results a0 J 0e1 (q0 ; j0 ) Y 0e1 (q0 ; j0 ) De1 (0)
~ , ð1cÞ
Modeling and the analytical solution. The system considered in our b0 Ye1 (q0 ; j0 ) iJ 0e1 (q0 ; j0 ) 1zDe1 (0)
study is a two-dimensional (2D) metamaterial consisting of a meff ,y {m0
a0 Y 0e1 (q0 ; j0 )
periodic rectangular array of elliptic cylinders with permittivity, es,
and magnetic permeability, ms, embedded in a background material where the effective permittivity, eeff, is a scalar related to the monopolar
with permittivity, e0, and magnetic permeability, m0. A unit cell of the mode and the effective permeability is a tensor whose principle
metamaterial is illustrated in Fig. 1(a). The elliptic cylinder’s semi- components meff,x and meff,y are associated with the y-polarized and x-
major and semi-minor axes are as and bs, respectively, and its filling polarized dipolar modes, respectively. The x- and y-axes are set in the
ratio, i.e., the ratio of the area of the elliptic cylinder to the area of the directions of the semi-major and semi-minor axes of the elliptic
unit cell, is f. Given as, bs, and f, the length,
 a, and  the width, b, of the cylinders, respectively. Note that all of the notations and subscripts
unit cell are determined by a2 {b2 ~p a2s {b2s and abf 5 pasbs. For appearing in Eq. (1) are defined or introduced in the Method section.
the dispersion microstructure15, in which the scatterers are always
dispersed in the matrix, the CPA scheme considers the scattering of a Verification of the EMT. In Fig. 2(a), we plot the band structure of a
coated cylinder in an effective medium (as shown in Fig. 1(b)). The metamaterial obtained from a full-wave simulation using black dots.
inner elliptic cylinder represents the scatterer in the metamaterial The metamaterial is composed of elliptic cylinders in a rectangular
and the coating layer is the background medium, while the semi- lattice embedded in air and the geometric sizes of the scatterer and
major and semi-minor axes of the outer elliptic cylinder are a0 and the lattice are as 5 0.26r, bs 5 0.2r, a 5 1.16r, and b 5 1.12r, where r
b0, respectively. Such a coated elliptic cylinder represents the is a normalized length unit. The material parameters are chosen as es
microstructure of the metamaterial or the average cell16 in the CPA 5 12, ms 5 1 for the scatterer, and e0 5 1, m0 5 1 for air. Also plotted
scheme, as the outside environment has been averaged as an effective in Fig. 2(a) (in red solid curves) are the band structures predicted by
medium. It is generalized from the circular (or spherical) average the EMT, i.e., Eq. (1). The corresponding effective permittivity and
cells of isotropic lattices with isotropic scatterers17,39. The cross- permeability are shown in Figs. 2(b) and 2(c), respectively. They
sectional area of the average cell should be identical to that of a provide us with a clear picture and understanding of the dispersion
unit cell, i.e., pa0b0 5 ab, so that the filling fraction of the scatterer relations. We label three points on the band structure at the Brillouin

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Figure 2 | Verification of derived EMT. (a) Band structure calculations (black dots) using COMSOL, compared with EMT predictions (red curves) from
Eq. (1). (b) Corresponding effective permittivity and (c) permeability calculated from Eq. (1). (d) Transmission coefficient (in logarithmic scale) of a
plane wave incident on a 9-layer metamaterial sample in the x-direction (black dots), compared with the EMT prediction (red curves). The left panel
~
shows the result in the frequency regime v[(0, 0.11); the right panel shows the data for the (0.48, 0.61) regime. (e) The same as (d) but in the y-direction.
The left panel shows the (0, 0.11) regime results; the right panel shows the (0.53, 0.66) regime data. (f) Eigenfield patterns for points ‘‘A’’, (g) ‘‘B’’, and (h)
‘‘C’’ marked in (a). Dark red and dark blue represent the positive and negative maxima of the electric field and arrows indicate the magnetic fields. The
geometric parameters are taken as as 5 0.26r, bs 5 0.2r, a 5 1.16r, and b 5 1.12r, while es 5 12, ms 5 1, e0 5 1, and m0 5 1 are the material parameters.

zone center as ‘‘A’’, ‘‘B’’, and ‘‘C’’ (the blue dots in Fig. 2(a)). The applicability of the EMT. When the Bloch wave vector is sufficiently
eigenfrequencies of these points are v ~ A ~0:531, v~ B ~0:555, and large that this condition no longer holds, the EMT is deemed to be
~ C ~0:593, respectively, and the dimensionless frequency,
v inaccurate. Nevertheless, the derived EMT still yields accurate pre-
~
v~va=2pc 0 , is used (c0 is the wave velocity in air). Comparing dictions for the effective medium parameters near the C point. Note
Fig. 2(a) with Figs. 2(b) and 2(c), we find that v ~ A, v
~ B , and v
~C that the red curves coincide with the black dots in the frequency
correspond exactly to the frequencies at which meff,y, eeff, and meff,x ~
regimes v[(0, 0.11) and (0.48, 0.61) in the CX direction and (0,
become zero. Because the dispersion relations of such an anisotropic 0.11) and (0.53, 0.66) in the CY direction. We also computed the
medium are determined by7 transmission spectrum of a plane wave normally incident on a 9-layer
metamaterial sample embedded in air in these frequency regimes, and
k2eff ,x k2eff ,y
z ~v2 eeff , ð2Þ the results are plotted in Figs. 2(d) (x-direction) and 2(e) (y-direction)
meff ,y meff ,x using black dots. For comparison, the transmission spectrum of the
same sample but with the metamaterial replaced by a slab of effective
it is easy to obtain the dispersion relations in different directions. For medium is represented by the red curves, which are calculated from
example, in thepCX (CY) direction, i.e., keff,y 5
ffi 0 (keff,x 5 0), we have the standard formula of the transmission coefficient of a layered
pffiffiffiffiffiffi ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffipffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
keff ,x ~v eeff meff ,y (keff ,y ~v eeff meff ,x ). If both eeff and meff,y medium40. Good agreements between the numerical simulation and
are positive (negative) over a frequency range, then there is a the effective medium prediction are again observed. Since the band
positive (negative) band in the CX direction. If these two quantities structure and transmission coefficients can be used to determine the
have different signs, then there is a gap in the CX direction rather effective velocity and the impedance of the sample, respectively,
than a pass band. The same rules apply to the dispersion relations Figs. 2(a), 2(d), and 2(e) offer us clear evidence that the EMT is valid.
along the CY direction if we replace meff,y with meff,x. With these rules, A systematic study of the applicability of the EMT is presented in
all the dispersion relations near points ‘‘A’’, ‘‘B’’, and ‘‘C’’ can be the Discussion section. Here we emphasize that, for this case, Eq. (1)
easily interpreted. For example, for frequencies between v ~ A and is valid even when the dimensionless frequency is as high as 0.66, at
~ B , both eeff and meff,x are negative and meff,y is positive. Thus, there
v which the wavelength in the background medium is 1.52a (or 1.57b),
is a negative band in the CY direction, but a gap in the CX direction. far beyond the quasi-static limit. Figures 2(f)22(h) illustrate the field
When the frequency is slightly higher and located between v ~ B and distributions of the eigenstates at points ‘‘A’’, ‘‘B’’, and ‘‘C’’, which
~ C , both eeff and meff,y are positive and meff,x is negative, explaining the
v clearly show an x-polarized dipolar mode, a monopolar mode, and a
positive band in the CX direction and the gap in the CY direction. y-polarized dipolar mode, respectively. These figures again support
The flat bands near points ‘‘A’’ and ‘‘C’’ in the CY and CX directions the results given by Eq. (1) that meff,y, eeff, and meff,x are determined by
are in fact the longitudinal bands induced by meff,y and meff,x equal to the scattering coefficients of the x-polarized m 5 1 mode, the m 5 0
zero17, respectively. mode, and the y-polarized m 5 1 mode, respectively.
Figure 2(a) illustrates the excellent agreements between the
numerical simulations and the derived EMT in the center of the An anisotropic zero-index metamaterial. As shown in Fig. 2, when
Brillouin zone. We also notice that the red curve deviates from the the frequency takes values of v~ A, v
~ B , and v
~ C , the system can be
black dots when the Bloch wave vector is far removed from the C regarded as an anisotropic zero-index material, because one of the
point. This is reasonable because we used the condition effective material parameters is near zero. Zero-index materials
1 have unprecedented abilities to manipulate electromagnetic
keff (a0 zb0 )vv1 in deriving Eq. (1), which limits the range of waves13,14,41–45. Here, we would like to focus particularly on v ~ C,
2

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where meff,x50.002R01, meff,y50.5637?meff,x, and eeff 5 0.1175. This

indicates that the system is an anisotropic zero-index material with
only one component of the permeability tensor near zero. Very
recently, such a medium was theoretically proposed and found to
be capable of cloaking an arbitrarily shaped defect and of exciting
evanescent waves near the defect boundaries, which therefore offers a
new method of controlling the electromagnetic flux14. Below, we
provide simulated results of the wave transmission through such a
metamaterial loaded with defects. Figure 3(a) illustrates a schematic
picture of the sample, which is a waveguide filled with a metamaterial
slab (composed of 12 3 10 previously mentioned unit cells). Three
defects labeled ‘‘1’’, ‘‘2’’, and ‘‘3’’ are distributed within the slab, as
shown in Fig. 3(a), with respective sizes of 2a 3 2b, 2a 3 b, and 3a 3
2b, and permeability m 5 1.5, 0.4, and 2.1, respectively. The
permittivity of the defects is set to 1. A TE-polarized plane wave
with frequency v ~ C is incident from the left.
As a comparison, we plot in Fig. 3(b) the electric field for the same
sample shown in Fig. 3(a), but without the metamaterial. Strong
scattered waves are excited by the defects, which significantly distort
the incident wave fronts. However, the results are significantly
altered in the presence of the metamaterial. Figures 3(c), 3(e), and
3(g) show, respectively, the electric field and the magnetic fields in
the x- and y-directions. The field patterns at the outlet of the wave-
guide are almost the same as those of the incident wave, indicating
the good cloaking effect of the metamaterial. From Fig. 3(c), we
clearly observe an almost uniform field distribution in the y-direction
(vertical direction) and an apparent phase change in the x-direction
(horizontal direction) in the metamaterial, implying that the meta-
material is highly anisotropic. The wavelength is nearly infinite along
the y-direction, but finite along the x-direction. The corresponding Figure 3 | Demonstration of wave transmission through anisotropic
field distribution patterns for the same case, but with the metama- zero-index metamaterial loaded with defects. (a) Schematic of the sample,
terial replaced by the effective medium, are plotted in Figs. 3(d), 3(f), which is an air waveguide filled with a metamaterial slab (composed of 12
and 3(h). Similar patterns to those shown in Figs. 3(c), 3(e), and 3(g) 3 10 unit cells). Inside the metamaterial, there are three defects marked as
at the inlet and outlet of the waveguide are seen, suggesting that the ‘‘1’’, ‘‘2’’, and ‘‘3’’, with respective sizes of 2a 3 2b, 2a 3 b, and 3a 3 2b,
EMT indeed describes the physical properties of the metamaterial. permeabilities m 5 1.5, 0.4, and 2.1, respectively, and permittivity 1. (b)
From Fig. 3(f), we find that evanescent waves around the defects are Electric field pattern for a TE-polarized plane wave with frequency
induced, which are essential for high transmittance14. ~ C ~0:593 incident from the left side of the waveguide without the
v
Figure 3 demonstrates the functionality of the anisotropic zero- metamaterial. (c) Electric field pattern, (e) the x-component of the
index metamaterial. Noting that the building blocks of the metama- magnetic field pattern, and (g) the y-component of the magnetic field
terial are dielectric elliptic cylinders, which are easily attainable, and pattern under the same excitation conditions as (b), but with the
that there are no complex structures involved, we believe that the metamaterial slab in the waveguide. (d), (f), and (h) The same quantities as
fabrication of such a metamaterial is feasible. those described in (c), (e), and (g), respectively, but the metamaterial slab
is replaced with an effective homogenous slab, which possesses effective
medium parameters eeff 5 0.1175, meff,x 5 0.0002, and meff,y 5 0.5637.
Discussion
We support the validity and application of our anisotropic EMT by medium scheme does not consider higher angular momentum
illustrating a simulated example, in which a set of values of as/bs, es, terms.
ms, and a filling ratio of f5pasbs/ab are chosen, and good agreements In summary, we have derived an anisotropic EMT for a 2D elec-
between the numerical simulations and the EMT predictions are tromagnetic metamaterial. This theory can provide closed-form ana-
observed. In the following, we conduct a systematic study of the lytical solutions for anisotropic effective medium parameters and
manners in which the material and geometric parameters influence reveal the link between the effective medium parameters and the
the accuracy of the EMT. In Fig. 4, we plot the frequencies at which resonant modes. It is found that the effective permittivity is related
zero effective medium parameters are obtained as functions of vari- to the monopolar mode and the effective permeability tensor is
ous parameters. The curves are obtained from Eq. (1) and the dots associated with the dipolar modes. The validity of the theory is veri-
correspond to the frequencies of the lowest monopolar and dipolar fied by band structure and transmission spectra calculations and we
states at the C point, which are results of the band structure calcula- find that the theory is valid even when the wavelength in the back-
tions. In Figs. 4(a)–4(c), we fix the permeability of the scatterers to 1, ground medium is comparable to the size of the lattice, which is
and change the aspect ratio, permittivity, and the filling ratio of the beyond the long-wavelength limit. At the quasi-static limit, our
scatterers, respectively. In the lower panel of Fig. 4, we study similar EMT recovers the Maxwell-Garnett formula. We expect that the
cases to those in the upper panel but with the permittivity of the EMT developed here will facilitate the design of new metamaterials,
scatterers fixed at 1. Figure 4 demonstrates that the predictions of our and we show that a recently proposed anisotropic zero-index mater-
EMT in general coincide with the band structure simulations. When ial can indeed be fabricated from a periodic structure. Additional
the aspect ratio and filling ratio increase, the predictions deviate from anisotropic metamaterials with various desired properties may also
the numerical results. This is reasonable as higher angular be devised based on the predictions of our EMT. Although this
momentum terms, i.e., m $ 2, contribute to the eigenmodes at low theory is derived for electromagnetic metamaterials, it can be gen-
frequencies when the elliptic cylinder becomes flatter or larger. This eralized to its acoustic counterpart because of the mathematical map-
effect leads to inaccurate predictions, because our derived effective ping between these two systems in two dimensions.

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Figure 4 | Effects of different parameters on derived EMT predictions. The frequencies at which eeff, meff,x, or meff,y become zero according to Eq. (1), as
functions of various parameters are pictured as curves. For comparison, the frequencies of the lowest monopolar and dipolar states at the C point,
which are obtained from the band structure calculations using COMSOL, are also plotted in dots. (a) Effects of changing as/bs with fixed es 5 12, ms 5 1,
and f 5 0.126. (b) Effects of changing es, with fixed as/bs 5 1.3, ms 5 1, and f 5 0.126. (c) Effects of changing f, with fixed as/bs 5 1.3, es 5 12, and ms 5 1.
(d)2(f) Similar conditions as those shown in (a) – (c), but the dielectric cylinders (ms 5 1) are replaced with magneto cylinders (es 5 1).

Methods where Fc is
Solution of the Helmholtz equation in elliptic coordinates. Considering the Scm (q0 ; g)
microstructure shown in Fig. 1(b) for a TE-polarized wave, the electric field in the Fc ~ (1)
½Vc1 Hcm (qeff ; j0 ){Vc2 Jcm (qeff ; j0 ){1 ,
m0 Scm (qeff ; g)
effective medium can be expressed as46
X and
(1)
Ecz ~ acm (eff )Scm (qeff ; g)Jcm (qeff ; j)zbcm (eff )Scm (qeff ; g)Hcm (qeff ; j), ð3Þ
(1)
m A11 ~Scm (qeff ; g)Hcm (qeff ; j0 )J’cm (q0 ; j0 ){m0 Vc2 Jcm (q0 ; j0 ), ð6aÞ
and, similarly, the electric field in the background medium of the coating layer is
X (1) (1) (1)
(1)
A12 ~Scm (qeff ; g)Hcm (qeff ; j0 )Hcm ’(q0 ; j0 ){m0 Vc2 Hcm (q0 ; j0 ), ð6bÞ
Ecz ~ acm (0)Scm (q0 ; g)Jcm (q0 ; j)zbcm (0)Scm (q0 ; g)Hcm (q0 ; j): ð4Þ
m
A21 ~m0 Vc1 Jcm (q0 ; j0 ){Scm (qeff ; g)Jcm (qeff ; j0 )J’cm (q0 ; j0 ), ð6cÞ
Here, g and j, where 0 # g , 2p and 0 # j , ‘, represent elliptic coordinates that can
be transformed into Cartesian coordinates according to x 5 c cos(g)cosh(j)and y 5 c
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (1)
A22 ~m0 Vc1 Hcm (1)
(q0 ; j0 ){Scm (qeff ; g)Jcm (qeff ; j0 )H’cm (q0 ; j0 ), ð6dÞ
sin(g)sinh(j), where c~ a2s {b2s ~ a20 {b20 represents the focal length of the
elliptic coordinate system. In Eqs. (3) and (4), Sm(q; g) denote the angular Mathieu where
functions of the first kind, while Jm(q; j) and Hm (1)
(q; j) are the radial Mathieu !
functions of the first and third kinds, respectively. The subscript m is an integer 1 cosh2 (j0 ) sin2 (g) sinh2 (j0 ) cos2 (g)
Vc1 ~ z Scm (qeff ; g)J’cm (qeff ; j0 )z
denoting the order of the Mathieu functions. The angular and radial Mathieu D meff ,x meff ,y
functions form solutions to the Helmholtz equation in elliptic coordinates, which split !
into decoupled even (denoted by subscript e) and odd modes (denoted by subscript o) cosh (j0 ) sinh (j0 ) cos (g) sin (g) 1 1
{ S’cm (qeff ; g)Jcm (qeff ; j0 ),
with respect to the x-axis for non-zero m. Here, the general notation c 5 e, or o, is D meff ,x meff ,y
1 1
used. The variable q0 (qeff) is a dimensionless quantity and is equal to c2 k20 ( c2 k2eff ),
q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi 4 4 and
pffiffiffiffipffiffiffiffiffi !
where k0 ~v e0 m0 (keff ~ k2eff ,x zk2eff ,y ) is the wave vector in the background
1 cosh2 (j0 ) sin2 (g) sinh2 (j0 ) cos2 (g) (1)
(effective) medium. Vc2 ~ z Scm (qeff ; g)Hcm ’(qeff ; j0 )z
D meff ,x meff ,y
!
Boundary Conditions. The expansion coefficients in Eqs. (3) and (4), i.e. acm(s)and cosh (j0 ) sinh (j0 ) cos (g) sin (g) 1 1 (1)
bcm(s)with s 5 0, or eff, are related through the boundary conditions, which are the { S’cm (qeff ; g)Hcm (qeff ; j0 ):
D meff ,x meff ,y
continuities of the tangential components of both the electric and magnetic fields on
the interface between the background and effective medium. The boundary
conditions can be expressed as Ez(eff) 5 Ez(0) and Hg(eff)5hjEz(0)/m0 at j 5 j0,
where j0 5 cosh21(a0/c) 5 sinh21(b0/c) is the outer boundary of the coated cylinder
and Hg(eff) is expressed in the anisotropic effective medium as Analytical solution for the effective medium. The effective medium condition
requires that the scattering of the coated cylinder vanishes. Since the scattered field of
1 Ly Ez (eff ) Lx Ez (eff ) (1)
the coated cylinder is represented by Hm (qeff ; j), a vanishing scattered wave in the
Hg (eff )~ pffiffiffiffi ½cosh (j0 ) sin (g) z sinh (j0 ) cos (g) ,
iv D meff ,x meff ,y effective medium implies that bcm(eff)50. According to Eq. (5), such a condition
leads to
A21 bcm (0)
with D 5 cosh2(j0)sin2(g) 1 sinh2(j0)cos2(g). Substituting Eqs. (3) and (4) into the ~{ ~{Dcm (0), ð7Þ
boundary conditions, we obtain A22 acm (0)
" #  " #
acm (eff ) A11 A12 acm (0) where Dcm(0) represent the Mie scattering coefficients of a scatterer of the
~Fc , ð5Þ metamaterial. These coefficients can be obtained by solving the Helmholtz equation
bcm (eff ) A21 A22 bcm (0)
and matching the boundary conditions between the scatterer and the background

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | 5 : 7892 | DOI: 10.1038/srep07892 5

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medium. They have the form Results in the limit of vanishing eccentricity. In the limit of vanishing eccentricity,
i.e., as/bs R 1 (or c R 0), the scatterer becomes an isotropic cylinder and the
m0 J’cm (qs ; js )Jcm (q0 ; js ){ms Jcm (qs ; js )J’cm (q0 ; js ) rectangularlattice correspondingly becomes a square lattice, according to the relation
Dcm (0)~ (1) (1)
, ð8Þ 
ms Jcm (qs ; js )Hcm ’(q0 ; js ){m0 J’cm (qs ; js )Hcm (q0 ; js ) a2 {b2 ~p a2s {b2s . In this limit, the angular and radial Mathieu functions
transform into the trigonometric and Bessel functions, respectively46. As a result, Eq.
in which the subscript ‘‘s’’ means that the quantities take the corresponding values of (1) is reduced to Eq. (7) in Ref. 17.
the scatterer, while js indicates the boundary of the scatterer.
When the wavelength in the effective medium is much larger compared to the size Numerical simulations. All the numerical simulations presented here are performed
1 using COMSOL Multiphysics, a commercial package based on the finite-element
of the coated cylinder, i.e., keff (a0 zb0 )vv1, the scattering of the coated cylinder is
2 method. Figures 2(a) and 2(f)–2(h) are computed using the eigenfrequency study in
dominated by monopolar (m 5 0) and dipolar (m 5 1) terms. Under this condition, the RF module. The Bloch boundary conditions are imposed on the boundaries of the
we substitute Eqs. (6c) and (6d) into Eq. (7) and approximate the zero- and first-order unit cells. The black dots in Figs. 2(d) and 2(e) are calculated using the frequency
Mathieu functions associated with the effective medium by Se0(qeff; g) 5 1, domain study in the RF module. The same module is used in Figs. 3(b) –3(h). A
S’e0 (qeff ; g)~0, Se1(qeff; g) 5 cos(g), S’e1 (qeff ; g)~{ sin (g), So1(qeff; g) 5 sin(g), radiation boundary condition is placed at the waveguide outlet so that there is no
v2 {v22 v1 zv2 reflected wave, while periodic boundary conditions are set on the upper and lower
S’o1 (qeff ; g)~ cos (g), Je0(qeff; j0) 5 1, J’e0 (qeff ; j0 )~ 1 , Je1 (qeff ; j0 )~ ,
2 2 boundaries of the waveguide. The TE-polarized plane wave with frequency v ~ C is
v1 {v2 v1 {v2 v1 zv2
J’e1 (qeff ; j0 )~{ , Jo1 (qeff ; j0 )~{ and J’o1 (qeff ; j0 )~ , with incident from the left.
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2 2
v1 ~ qeff e{j0 and v2 ~ qeff ej0 . We obtain Eq. (1), i.e.,
J’e0 (q0 ; j0 ) 1. Smith, D. R. & Kroll, N. Negative Refractive Index in Left-Handed Materials. Phys.
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~ ,
Ye0 ’ (q0 ; j0 ) iJe0 (q0 ; j0 ) 1zDe0 (0) Composite Medium with Simultaneously Negative Permeability and Permittivity.
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Acknowledgments
The work described here is supported by King Abdullah University of Science and
35. Smith, D. R., Schultz, S., Markoš, P. & Soukoulis, C. M. Determination of effective
permittivity and permeability of metamaterials from reflection and transmission Technology. The authors would like to thank Prof. P. Sheng, Prof. Z. Q. Zhang, Prof. J. Mei,
coefficients. Phys. Rev. B 65, 195104 (2002). and Dr. M. Yang for stimulating discussions.
36. Fokin, V., Ambati, M., Sun, C. & Zhang, X. Method for retrieving effective
properties of locally resonant acoustic metamaterials. Phys. Rev. B 76, 144302 Author contributions
(2007). X.J.Z. derived the analytic formulae, conducted numerical simulations, drew figures, and
37. Liu, X. X., Powell, D. A., & Alù, A. Correcting the Fabry-Perot artifacts in prepared the manuscript. Y.W. proposed the research direction, supervised the work, and
metamaterial retrieval procedures. Phys. Rev. B 84, 235106 (2011). revised the manuscript.
38. Liu, X. X. & Alù, A. Generalized retrieval method for metamaterial constitutive
parameters based on a physically driven homogenization approach. Phys. Rev. B
87, 235136 (2013). Additional information
39. Jin, J. F., Liu, S. Y., Lin, Z. F. & Chui, S. T. Effective-medium theory for anisotropic Competing financial interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.
magnetic metamaterials. Phys. Rev. B 80, 115101 (2009).
40. Fouque, J.-P., Garnier, J., Papanicolaou, G. & Solna, K. Wave Propagation and How to cite this article: Zhang, X. J. & Wu, Y. Effective medium theory for anisotropic
Time Reversal in Randomly Layered Media (Springer Science & Business Media, metamaterials. Sci. Rep. 5, 7892; DOI:10.1038/srep07892 (2015).
2007).
41. Moitra, P. et al. Realization of an all-dielectric zero-index optical metamaterial. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
Nat. Photon. 7, 791 (2013). ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this
42. Huang, X., Lai, Y., Hang, Z. H., Zheng, H. & Chan, C. T. Dirac cones induced by article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated
accidental degeneracy in photonic crystals and zero-refractive-index materials. otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative
Nat. Mater. 10, 582 (2011). Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder
43. Alù, A., Silveirinha, M. G., Salandrino, A. & Engheta, N. Epsilon-near-zero in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
metamaterials and electromagnetic sources: Tailoring the radiation phase pattern. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Phys. Rev. B 75, 155410 (2007).

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | 5 : 7892 | DOI: 10.1038/srep07892 7