Effects of nonlocal response on the density of states of hyperbolic metamaterials

Metamaterials with a hyperbolic dispersion curve, called hyperbolic metamaterials, exhibit an amazing broad-band singularity in the photonic density of states in the usual local-response approximation. In this paper, under the framework of the hydrodynamic Drude model, we discuss the effects of the nonlocal response of the electron gas in the metal on the hyperbolic metamaterials.

By using mean field theory, we derive the effective material parameters of the hyperbolic metamaterials. The original unbounded hyperbolic dispersion is found to be cut off at the wavevector inverse to the Fermi velocity. By expanding the Green function in a plane-wave basis and using the transfer matrix method to calculate the reflection coefficients, we study the local density of states (LDOS) of hyperbolic metamaterials.

We show that the nonlocal response of the electron gas in the metal removes the singularity of both radiative and non-radiative local density of states, and also sets up a finite maximal value. We also briefly discuss the effects of the nonlocal response on other plasmonic structures, such as a metallic semi-infinite substrate and a metallic slab.