Simulation of a tunable metamaterial with nematic liquid crystal layers

Abstract

Due to their unique electromagnetic properties, left-handed metamaterials (LHMs) have interesting potential application values at microwave frequencies. A tunable LHM employing nematic liquid crystal BL006 at microwave frequencies was analysed. A full-wave analysis technique based on the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) was performed using QuickWave software for a electromagnetic design program. Parameters of the structure of the tunable metamaterial such as transmission and effective refractive index show good agreement in relation to literature data. The tunable structure was analysed in the 10 to 14 GHz range.

Keywords:

• tunability
• refractive index
• simulation
• liquid crystal

Acknowledgements

This paper was produced in 2010 with financial support from the Polish Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education, Key Project POIG.01.03.01-14-016/08 ‘New Photonic Materials and their Advanced Applications’.