Continuous `fish scale' planar electromagnetic meta-material

We report on a new type of continuous electromagnetic metal planar meta-material, which resembles a `fish scale' structure. It is highly transparent to electromagnetic radiation throughout a broad spectral range apart from at one isolated wavelength. When the structure is superimposed on a metallic mirror it becomes a good broadband reflector everywhere apart from one wavelength where the reflectivity is small. At this wavelength the reflected wave shows no phase change with respect to the incident wave, thus resembling a reflection from a hypothetical zero refractive index material, or `magnetic wall'. We also discovered that the structure acts as a local field concentrator and a resonant `amplifier' of losses in the underlying dielectric.