Evaluation and illustration of the properties of Metamaterials using field summation

The prediction and the engineering of the electromagnetic properties of metamaterials are increasingly important issues. Recently, several approaches have been proposed to compute these properties through appropriate averages of local fields within the unit cell. In particular, we proposed a Field Summation method that has been used successfully to determine either analytically or numerically the effective properties of different composites and metamaterials. But this method also provides interesting clues for understanding the behaviour of these materials. It helps chose appropriate planes to visualize the fields using electromagnetic simulation software, and understand behaviours leading to either positive or negative effective parameters, with either small or large values. It helps establish whether the materials can be adequately described by effective parameters. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.