Origin of Negative Imaginary Part of Effective Permittivity of Passive Materials

The anti-resonant phenomenon of effective electromagnetic parameters of metamaterials has aroused controversy due to negative imaginary permittivity or permeability. It is experimentally found that the negative imaginary permittivity can occur for the natural passive materials near the Fabry–Perot resonances. We reveal the nature of negative imaginary permittivity, which is correlated with the magnetoelectric coupling. The anti-resonance of permittivity is a non-inherent feature for passive materials, while it can be inherent for devices or metamaterials. Our finding validates that the negative imaginary part of effective permittivity does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics for metamaterials owing to the magnetoelectric coupling.