  It is well known that defining a local refractive index for a metamaterial
requires that the wavelength be large with respect to the scale of its
microscopic structure (generally the period). However, the converse does not
hold. There are simple structures, such as the infinite, perfectly conducting
wire medium, which remain non-local for arbitrarily large wavelength-to-period
ratios. In this work we extend these results to the more realistic and relevant
case of finite wire media with finite conductivity. In the quasi-static regime
the metamaterial is described by a non-local permittivity which is obtained
analytically using a two-scale renormalization approach. Its accuracy is tested
and confirmed numerically via full vector 3D finite element calculations.
Moreover, finite wire media exhibit large absorption with small reflection,
while their low fill factor allows considerable freedom to control other
characteristics of the metamaterial such as its mechanical, thermal or chemical
robustness.
