Physics of propagation in left-handed guided wave structures at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies.

A microstrip configuration is loaded with a left-handed medium substrate and studied regarding its dispersion diagrams over the microwave and millimeter-wave frequency bands for a number of different modal solutions. Ab initio calculations are accomplished self-consistently with a computer code using a full-wave integral equation numerical method based upon a Green's function employing appropriate boundary conditions. Bands of both propagating and evanescent behavior are discovered in some of the modes. Electromagnetic field plots in the cross-sectional dimension are made. New electric field line and magnetic circulation patterns are discovered.