Some useful features of microstrip patch antennas are low profile, low weight and easy fabrication. However this type of antenna suffers from having a low gain, caused by propagation surface waves. In this paper, a new near zero refractive index metamaterial (MTM) unit cell is designed and fabricated as a superstrate over a Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antennas (RMPA). In order to obtain a maxi...

The control and manipulation of light on the nanoscale — the primary aim of nanophotonics — is of fundamental scientific interest and plays a key role in telecommunication technologies and energy management. Yet, because light–matter interactions are usually weak and hard to confine, they often need to be assisted by the use of suitably designed macroscopic media. For instance, the use of caref...

New propagation regimes for light arise from the ability to tune the dielectric permittivity to extremely low values. Here, we demonstrate a universal approach based on the low linear permittivity values attained in the ε-near-zero (ENZ) regime for enhancing the nonlinear refractive index, which enables remarkable light-induced changes of the material properties. Experiments performed on Al-dop...