Coherent and incoherent metamaterials and order-disorder transitions

We present a concept of "coherent" and "incoherent" metamaterials, which show distinctly different resonant behavior upon disordering of their initially regular lattices. In the case of a coherent metamaterial a regular ensemble of metamolecules exhibits a collective narrow-band response that becomes broader and eventually disappears with increasing disorder, while in an incoherent metamaterial the disorder has little effect on the structure's resonant properties. © 2009 The American Physical Society.