Terahertz near-field imaging of electric and magnetic resonances of a planar metamaterial

Experimental investigations of the microscopic electric and in particular the magnetic near-fields in metamaterials remain highly challenging and current studies rely mostly on numerical simulations. Here we report a terahertz near-field imaging approach which provides spatially resolved measurements of the amplitude, phase and polarization of the electric field from which we extract the microscopic magnetic near-field signatures in a planar metamaterial constructed of split-ring resonators (SRRs). In addition to studying the fundamental resonances of an individual double SRR unit we further investigate the interaction with neighboring elements. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America