Active Metamaterials with Negative Static Electric Susceptibility

unit cell with instrumentation amplifier and power supply

Researchers in the University of Oxford's Materials and Engineering departments, and the University of Warwick and Queen Mary University London have developed a new approach to the argument that static electric susceptibility must be positive 'in all bodies', by using a new design concept based on active metamaterials with internal power sources.

Using this approach, effective values were readily achieved at room temperature and pressure, and were tunable through a defined range of stability, resulting in experimentally-determined magnitudes of over one thousand times greater than those previously predicted.

This approach provides potential for related fields, such as stable electrostatic levitation.