Fabrication of infrared left-handed metamaterials via double template-assisted electrochemical deposition

The fabrication of sandwich-structure infrared left-handed metamaterials (LHM), covering a centimeter area, composed of an indium tin oxide slice (ITO), zinc oxide (ZnO) dielectric spacer, and silver dendritic cell array, by using double template-assisted electrochemical deposition was discussed. It was found that by adjusting the chemical reaction parameters polyglycol-2000 (PEG-2000) in the self-assembly process, the geometry of dendritic structure can be controlled at the 10nm level, and the magnetic resonance frequency of silver dendritic cell array can be modulated easily. It was also found that when the concentration of PEG-200 was 1.2mM, the caliber and whole thickness of the as-prepared ZnO bowl-like structure cell were 2.2μm and 0.8μm, respectively. The results show that fabrication of silver dendritic structural array on conducting substrates offers a facile, lower-cost method to fabricate LHMs to larger areas at IR and even visible light frequencies.