Additively manufactured artificial materials with metallic meta-atoms

This study presents the analysis and fabrication of artificial materials with metallic cuboid inclusions (termed here as meta-atoms) in a dielectric host material. These synthetic materials or metamaterials have been additively manufactured with a fused deposition modelling three-dimensional (3D) printer. The effective permittivity and permeability have been numerically analysed using the Maxwell–Garnett and Lewin's approximation. Simulations and measurements have shown good agreement with analytical calculations. The anisotropy of the heterogeneous mixture due to the orientation of the meta-atoms has been demonstrated. The effective permittivity has been increased by the presence of the meta-atoms, which has the potential of producing 3D-printing metamaterials with tailored electromagnetic properties.