Stopband phenomena in the passband of left-handed metamaterials

Stopband phenomena are reported in the passband of left-handed metamaterials. The samples with linear defect are designed by removing one layer of split ring resonators (SRRs). It is shown that the left-handed transmission peaks have a distinct transform with the relative deviation of the SRRs centre from the wire centre δ, from a single left-handed peak, double left-handed peaks with different magnitude to no transmission peak, i.e. left-handed properties of metamaterials disappear. Numerical simulation shows that the change of δ makes the effective permeability shift at a frequency range, where stopband occurs. It is thought that the stopband in left-handed passband is due to the symmetry breaking between SRRs and wires in the metamaterials.