Ab initio experimental analysis of realistic resonant ring metamaterial lenses

Metamaterials became a subject of interest because of the possibility of fabricating a super-lens with sub-wavelenght resolution. However, in such structures, discreteness effects are present due to the finite size of the unit cell, and to the finite number of constituent elements. These effects can affect the properties of the metamaterial, making them different from those of the homogenized infinite medium. In particular, conditions for metamaterial lenses imposes a small thickness in order to obtain a small resolution, which in practice leads to metamaterial slabs with a thickness of a few unit cells. Furthermore, finite size of the lens leads to substantial deviations from predictions for a discrete slab of infinite extent. This contribution reports the experimental analysis of these effects in realistic metamaterial slabs of finite extent.