Structural tunability in metamaterials

We propose an efficient approach for tuning the transmission characteristics of metamaterials through a continuous adjustment of the lattice structure and confirm it experimentally in the microwave range. The concept is rather general and applicable to various metamaterials as long as the effective medium description is valid. The demonstrated continuous tuning of a metamaterial response is highly desirable for a number of emerging applications of metamaterials, including sensors, filters, and switches, realizable in a wide frequency range.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council. M.L. acknowledges hospitality of Nonlinear Physics Center and a support of the Spanish Junta de Andalusia Project P06-TIC-01368. M.G. acknowledges support from the Russian Academy of Sciences OFN Programm “Physics of new materials and structures”