Magnetoinductive breathers in metamaterials

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2008 Mar;77(3 Pt 2):036608. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.77.036608. Epub 2008 Mar 14.

Abstract

The existence and stability of discrete breathers (DBs) in one- and two-dimensional magnetic metamaterials (MMs), which consist of periodic arrangements (arrays) of split-ring resonators (SRRs), are investigated numerically. We consider different configurations of the SRR arrays, which are related to the relative orientation of the SRRs in the MM, in both one and two spatial dimensions. In the latter case we also consider anisotropic MMs. Using standard numerical methods we construct several types of linearly stable breather excitation in both Hamiltonian and dissipative MMs (dissipative breathers). The study of stability in both cases is performed using standard Floquet analysis. In both cases we find that the increase of dimensionality from one to two spatial dimensions does not destroy the DBs, which may also exist in the case of moderate anisotropy (in two dimensions). In dissipative MMs, the dynamics is governed by a power balance between the mainly Ohmic dissipation and driving by an alternating magnetic field. In that case it is demonstrated that DB excitation locally alters the magnetic response of MMs from paramagnetic to diamagnetic. Moreover, when the frequency of the applied field approaches the SRR resonance frequency, the magnetic response of the MM in the region of the DB excitation may even become negative (extremely diamagnetic).