Electric Levitation Using Epsilon-Near-Zero Metamaterials

Levitation of objects with action at a distance has always been intriguing to humans. Several ways to achieve this, such as aerodynamic, acoustic, or electromagnetic methods, including radiation pressure, stable potential wells, and quantum Casimir-Lifshitz forces, exist. A fascinating approach for levitation is that of magnets over superconductors based on the Meissner effect -the expulsion of the magnetic field by a superconductor. With the advent of metamaterials -designed structures with electromagnetic properties that may not be found in nature- we ask whether a material may be conceived exhibiting similar field expulsion, but involving the electric field. We show how a special subcategory of metamaterials, called epsilon-near-zero materials, exhibits such electric classic analog to the Meissner effect, exerting a repulsion on nearby sources. Repulsive forces using anisotropic and chiral metamaterials have been investigated, but our proposal uses a different mechanism based on field expulsion, and is very robust to both losses and material dispersion.