Metamaterial tuning by manipulation of near-field interaction

We analyze the near-field interaction between the resonant sub-wavelength elements of a metamaterial, and present a method to calculate the electric and magnetic interaction coefficients. We show that by adjusting the relative configuration of the neighboring split ring resonators it becomes possible to manipulate this near-field interaction, and thus tune the response of metamaterials. We use the results of this analysis to explain the experimentally observed tuning of microwave metamaterials.