Nonmagnetic nanocomposites for optical and infrared negative-refractive-index media

We develop an approach to use nanostructured plasmonic materials as a nonmagnetic negative-refractiveindex system at optical and near-infrared frequencies. In contrast to conventional negative-refraction materials, our design does not require periodicity and thus is highly tolerant to fabrication defects. Moreover, since the proposed materials are intrinsically nonmagnetic, their performance is not limited to the proximity of a resonance, so the resulting structure has relatively low loss. We develop the analytical description of the relevant electromagnetic phenomena and justify our analytic results via numerical solutions of Maxwell equations. © 2006 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 160.4760, 110.2990, 350.5730.