Trapped rainbow effect in visible light left-handed heterostructures

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the trapped rainbow in tapered left-handed heterostructures (LHHs) at visible frequencies. The employed left-handed metamaterials (LHMs) are isotropic with the size of hundreds of square millimeter. Specifically, the LHMs sample at visible frequencies has a broad spectral range and low loss, making it an intrinsic optical response for the LHHs. It is found that the frequency components of the wave packet separate at positions with different guide thicknesses only if the inclination of tapered LHHs is greater than zero and smaller than the critical value.