Phase constant peculiarities of cylindrical zero-index anisotropic metamaterial waveguide

Here, we present the phase constant dependencies of propagating eigenmodes of an open cylindrical anisotropic metamaterial waveguide when the metamaterial permittivity and permeability tensor components may accept values close or equal to zero. Dispersion characteristics of rod and hollow-core waveguides with the radii 0.5, 2.5, and 5 mm at the left-handed polarization of the microwave are shown here. There are unusual shapes of eigenmode dispersion characteristics and anomalous sectors of the characteristics at certain frequencies. The first eigenmode of the rod waveguide with the lowest cutoff frequency is a particularly important mode because it is a single one in the frequency range 1.0–1.9 GHz, and some small variations on the frequency produce large changes in the phase constant. We can observe packages of dispersion characteristic branches when their cutoff frequencies closed to the metamaterial electric and magnetic plasma frequencies between 1.9 and 3.5 GHz. There are only three modes in the hollow core anisotropic metamaterial waveguide at the frequency range 1.4–2.8 GHz.