Tuning the optical properties of metamaterials based on gold nanowire arrays embedded in alumina

We fabricated a series of gold nanowires/alumina composite films with different wire lengths. Optical transmission measurements confirmed that the composite films exhibit transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon resonances. We show that the wavelength of the longitudinal resonance is sensitive to nanowire length, while that of the transverse resonance is not. The experimental results are in agreement with the modeled results based on the Maxwell Garnett effective medium theory. Moreover, the window for negative refraction of the samples can be tuned in synchronism with the longitudinal resonance by the nanowire length.