Comb-Like Modal Dispersion Diagram in a Double-Wire Medium Slab

We investigate the guided modes supported by a wire metamaterial slab formed by two mutually orthogonal and nonconnected sets of parallel metallic wires. It is demonstrated that the wire medium slab has a peculiar comb-like dispersion diagram. In the continuum approximation, the metamaterial supports a diverging number of guided mode branches that accumulate near the light line due to a strong hyperbolic response in the static limit. In a realistic system, the number of guided mode branches is finite and is determined by the density of wires. Remarkably, the guided modes may be characterized by a fast field variation along the transverse direction, which can be exploited to detect subwavelength particles or defects.