We present a theoretical and experimental investigation into the energy transport in a conjugate matched bilayer consisting of ε-negative (ENG) and μ-negative (MNG) slabs. It is proved that the conjugated matched ENG/MNG bilayer is a subwavelength open-cavity resonator, in which the resonance frequency is determined by the complete tunneling condition, and the Q factor increases exponentially with the slab thickness. It is revealed that the wave is not evanescent inside the bilayer, but it is a hybrid of a traveling wave and a reactive standing wave. It is also manifested during the transient wave propagation that the reactive field energy stored inside the bilayer is provided by the incident wave.
© 2011 Optical Society of America
Original Manuscript: April 13, 2011
Manuscript Accepted: May 11, 2011
Published: June 7, 2011
Liwei Zhang, Yewen Zhang, Xiaodong Chen, Xiaoming Liu, Li Zhang, and Hong Chen, "Energy transport in a metamaterial subwavelength open-cavity resonator," Opt. Lett. 36, 2224-2226 (2011)