Tunable acoustic double negativity metamaterial

Man-made composite materials called metamaterials allow for the creation of unusual wave propagation behavior. Acoustic and elastic metamaterials in particular, can pave the way for the full control of sound in realizing cloaks of invisibility, perfect lenses and much more. In this work we design acousto-elastic surface modes that are similar to surface plasmons in metals and on highly conducting surfaces perforated by holes. We combine a structure hosting these modes together with a gap material supporting negative modulus and collectively producing negative dispersion. By analytical techniques and full-wave simulations we attribute the observed behavior to the mass density and bulk modulus being simultaneously negative. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.