Stacked complementary metasurfaces for ultraslow microwave metamaterials.

We have experimentally realized at microwaves a dual-band ultraslow regime by constructing a metamaterial based upon the alternative stack of conventional- and complementary-split-ring-resonators-surfaces. The group delay reaches values larger than two orders of magnitude than those obtained when the electromagnetic wave propagates the same thickness in free-space. The ultraslow waves have been initially predicted by a numerical eigenmode analysis and finite-integration frequency domain simulations. Such ultraslow modes can be integrated into free-space technology for spatial delay lines, and traveling wave amplifier as well as sensors due to the enhanced interaction between different beams or radiation and matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]