Transition metamaterials with spatially separated zeros.

We report analytical and numerical studies of the effect of the separation distance between zeros of dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability on the phenomena of resonant absorption and anomalous field enhancement in transition metamaterials. Our studies indicate that these phenomena are robust and strongly polarization-dependent in the presence of the spatial shift between these points. These results are likely to be important for future fundamental and applied studies in the areas of transformation, polarization, and nonlinear optics in metamaterials.

Metamaterials: electromagnetic enhancement at zero-index transition.

Resonant enhancement of electromagnetic waves propagating at oblique incidence in metamaterials, with dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability linearly changing from positive to negative values, has been predicted and theoretically studied. This effect occurs for both TE and TM polarizations near the point where a refractive index changes its sign. Our model elucidates the unique features of the resonant enhancement in "positive-to-negative transition" metamaterials for a broad frequency range from microwaves to optics.

Optical bistability in a nonlinear optical coupler with a negative index channel.

We discuss a novel kind of nonlinear coupler with one channel filled with a negative index metamaterial. The opposite directionality of the phase velocity and the energy flow in the negative index metamaterial channel facilitates an effective feedback mechanism that leads to optical bistability and gap soliton formation.

Reduced Maxwell-Duffing description of extremely short pulses in nonresonant media.

The propagation of extremely short pulses of an electromagnetic field (electromagnetic spikes) is considered in the framework of a model wherein the material medium is represented by anharmonic oscillators with cubic nonlinearities (Duffing model) and waves can propagate only in the right direction. The system of reduced Maxwell-Duffing equations admits two families of exact analytical solutions in the form of solitary waves. These are bright spikes propagating on a zero background, and bright and dark spikes propagating on a nonzero background. We find that these steady-state pulses are stable in terms of boundedness of the Hamiltonian. Direct simulations demonstrate that these pulses are very robust against perturbations. We find that a high-frequency modulated electromagnetic pulse evolves into a breather-like one. Conversely, a low frequency pulse transforms into a quasiharmonic wave.