Achievement

Hyperbolic metamaterials are an important class of metamaterials, in which values of dielectric permittivities in orthogonal directions have opposite signs. These materials enable a variety of applications ranging from a hyperlens to a perfect absorber. Consequently, we have demonstrated that absorption of thin dye-doped polymeric films can be tuned and enhanced (nearly threefold) by lamellar metal-dielectric hyperbolic metamaterial substrates, compared with traditional dielectric substrates. Calculations performed also show that the absorption coefficient of a dye-doped PMMA film deposited onto a hyperbolic metamaterial remains high over a broad range of angles. We have also demonstrated a drastic reduction of reflectance from hyperbolic metamaterials, enabled by their curvilinear shapes as well as scatterers placed on their surface. The reduced reflectance is accompanied by an enhancement in transmission along, with non-reciprocity of, in forward and backward directions.