Permeability enhancement of stratified metal dielectric metamaterial in optical regime

Abstract Magnetic response of stratified metal dielectric metamaterial (SMDM) is demonstrated numerically and experimentally. One unit cell of SMDM has a sandwich unit cell consisting of alumina (60 nm)/silver (30 nm)/alumina (60 nm). A Mach–Zehnder interferometer is used to obtain phase information of transmittance and reflectance from which effective permeability is determined. The maximum permeability amounts to 20 and 17 for calculation and experiment, respectively. This huge resonance occurs when the magnetic field is concentrated at the metal layer, while the electric field has a node at the center.