In recent years, there has been a great deal of attention devoted to metamaterials. Metamaterials are novel synthetic materials engineered to achieve unique properties not normally found in nature. In the context of electromagnetics, examples of these are artificial dielectrics, photonic bandgap structures, and frequency-selective surfaces. One particular class of metamaterial that is being studied extensively is double negative (DNG) materials (also known as negative-index materials [NIM], backward wave [BW] media, or left-handed materials [LHM]). Such materials have the property that their effective permittivity and effective permeability are simultaneously negative in a given frequency band. Although anticipated by theory dating back more than a century, DNG materials have not been observed to occur naturally. Such materials have a wide range of potential applications in electromagnetics (ranging from low microwave to optical frequencies) including: shielding, low-reflection materials, novel substrates, antennas, electronic switches, “perfect lenses”, and resonators, to name only a few.

Metamaterials are often engineered by arranging a set of small scatterers in a regular array throughout a region of space, thus obtaining some desirable bulk behavior. Having controllable-reconfigurable metamaterials would open up a host of new potential applications. This research will focus on developing new classes of metamaterials that will expand our ability to construct controllable-reconfigurable electromagnetic properties and to provide a means of engineering tailored materials for high frequency applications.