Theoretical Examination of Electromag- Netic Wave Tunneling through Cascaded 2- and Μ-negative Metamaterial Slabs

In this paper, we examine the close relationship that exists between the phenomenon of electromagnetic (EM) wave tunneling through stacks of single-negative metamaterial slabs and classical microwave filter theory. In particular, we examine the propagation of EM waves through a generalized multi-layer structure composed of N 2-negative layers separated from each other by N − 1 μnegative layers, where N ≥ 2 is a positive integer. We demonstrate that, if certain conditions are met, this multi-layer structure can act as a capacitively-coupled, coupled-resonator filter with an Nthorder bandpass response. Exploiting this relationship, we develop a generalized, analytical synthesis method that can be used to determine the physical parameters of this structure from its a priori known frequency response. We present several design examples in conjunction with numerical EM simulation results to demonstrate the validity of this analogy and examine the accuracy of the proposed synthesis procedure.