Phase conjugation and negative refraction using nonlinear active metamaterials

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Sep 17;105(12):123905. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.123905. Epub 2010 Sep 17.

Abstract

We present an experimental demonstration of phase conjugation using nonlinear metamaterial elements. Active split-ring resonators loaded with varactor diodes are demonstrated theoretically to act as phase-conjugating or time-reversing discrete elements when parametrically pumped and illuminated with appropriate frequencies. The metamaterial elements were fabricated and shown experimentally to produce a time-reversed signal. Measurements confirm that a discrete array of phase-conjugating elements act as a negatively refracting time-reversal rf lens only 0.12λ thick.