Metamaterials are currently one of the hottest topics in physics research. It is particularly intriguing that it is possible to create metamaterials with a negative index of refraction. Such a property is not known in natural materials. Poynting vector and wave vector are antiparallel in such a material, this means that group velocity and phase velocity have opposite directions. The development of metamaterials for visible light for novel lenses, cloaks and other devices is a very active research direction.
The fabrication of metamaterials at school is a big challenge as the underlying theory is rather complicated. However, we were so fascinated by these structures that we accepted the challenge.
After dealing with theory, we faced the practical probelms, wich also needed to be solved. It got really exciting when we put our first metamaterial prism on the optical bench and illuminated it with microwaves. We were very happy when we succeeded in demonstrating a negative refractive index experimentally.
