Metamaterials in microwaves and optics: a review

It is well known that from the electromagnetic viewpoint, material media are macroscopically described by their constitutive parameters, and the response functions of such parameters play the major roles in understanding and characterizing the behavior of electromagnetic and optical wave interaction with materials, and provide guidelines for the design, synthesis, and evaluation of new specialized materials. Metamaterials, which are engineered composite media, can be designed and constructed to exhibit unconventional characteristics and new response functions for the constitutive parameters. In this paper, an overview of the history, concepts, salient features, recent developments, and some potential applications of the metamaterials are given