Review of nanocomposites and atomistic metamaterials

Abstract

Composites made of periodic subwavelength metal/dielectric structures that resonantly couple to the electric and/or magnetic components of the incident electromagnetic elds, exhibiting properties that are not found in nature are named as metamaterials (MMs). This class of micro- and nano-structured articial media has attracted lots of attention during the past 15 years providing a fertile ground for ground-breaking electromagnetic and photonic phenomena. Practical applications of MMs have been delayed due to the high losses and strong dispersion associated with the resonant responses and the use of metallic structures, as well as the difculty in fabricating the micro- and nanoscale 3D structures. The novel materials, for instance graphene or transparent-conducting oxides (TCOs), employed to the nanocomposites can greatly suppress the undesirable losses. It is worthwhile noting, that three-layered nanocomposites enable an increase of the frequency range of the surface wave existence. This paper reviews recent progress in the physics of nanocomposites. We provide an overview of key concepts such as e ective medium approximation, and introduce nanocomposites based on the three-layered structure. An overview of graphene nanocomposites reveals their ability to support the Ferrel- Berreman modes under the certain conditions. We also describe the tunable properties of the nanocomposites.