Effect of longitudinal epsilon-near-zero regime in dynamics of ultrashort laser pulses in hyperbolic metamaterials

Optical properties of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) are in stark contrast to properties of ordinary media that fuels interest to various applications of HMMs in photonics. Special attention is attributed to the epsilon-near zero regime (ENZ) of HMMs that is the spectral point in which real part of the permittivity of the HMM becomes zero. This is accompanied by the effects of field enhancement having far-reaching applications. Here we focus on the experimental and theoretical investigation of the propagation of an ultrashort laser pulse through the silver nanorod-based HMM slab in the spectral range over the ENZ. We revealed pronounced resonant change of the pulse delay in HMMs and the transition between the superluminal and slow pulse propagation at the ENZ spectral point. Observed dynamical phenomena are confirmed theoretically and attributed to unusual case when the spectral half of an ultrashort pulse has elliptical dispersion and another has the hyperbolic one. Special attention is payed to the propagation of chirped laser pulses in the HMMs.