Higher order constitutive relations and interface conditions for metamaterials with strong spatial dispersion

Abstract To characterize electromagnetic metamaterials at the level of an effective medium, nonlocal constitutive relations are required. In the most general sense, this is feasible using a response function that is convolved with the electric field to express the electric displacement field. Even though this is a neat concept, it bears little practical use. Therefore, frequently the response function is approximated using a polynomial function. While in the past explicit constitutive relations were derived that considered only some lowest order terms, we develop here a general framework that considers an arbitrary high number of terms. It constitutes, therefore, an approximation to the initially considered response function of arbitrary precision. The reason for the previously self-imposed restriction to only a few lowest order terms in the expansion has been the unavailability of the necessary interface conditions with which these nonlocal constitutive relations have to be equipped. Otherwise one could not make practical use of them. Therefore, besides the introduction of such higher order nonlocal constitutive relations, it is at the heart of contribution to derive the necessary interface conditions to pave the way for the practical use of these advanced material laws.