We have observed, in metamaterial with hyperbolic dispersion (an array of silver nanowires in alumina membrane), a sixfold reduction of the emission lifetime of dye deposited onto the metamaterial's surface. This serves as evidence of an anomalously high density of photonic states in hyperbolic metamaterials, demonstrates the feasibility of an earlier-predicted single-photon gun, and paves the road for the use of metamaterials in quantum optics.

We describe a unique class of metamaterials that exhibit strong uniaxial anisotropy with epsilon-zero response along the optical axis and which optical properties depend strongly on polarization. In an example of array of silver nanowires grown in anodic alumina membrane, the proposed singular uniaxial metamaterial is shown to function as a polarizer and narrowband angular transmittance filter.

We show that corrugated surfaces of hyperbolic metamaterials scatter light preferentially inside the media, resulting in a very low reflectance and ultimate dark appearance in the spectral range of hyperbolic dispersion. This phenomenon of fundamental importance, demonstrated experimentally in arrays of silver nanowires grown in alumina membranes, originates from a broad-band singularity in the density of photonic states. It paves the road to a variety of applications ranging from the stealth technology to high-efficiency solar cells and photodetectors. PACS: 78.67.Pt,78.20.Ci, 81.05.Xj Metamaterials -engineered composite materials with rationally designed subwavelength inclusions -have unique responses to electromagnetic fields, which are unavailable in conventional media. Their fascinating properties and applications include negative index of refraction [1,2], invisibility cloaking [3-5], and sub-diffraction imaging and focusing [2,6-9]. The research in hyperbolic metamaterials (also known as indefinite media [10]), originally stimulatedby tantalizing possibilities offered by the absence of diffraction limit in a hyperlens [6][7][8][9], has uncovered a number of novel effects resulting from a broadband singular behavior of the density of photonic states in these materials [11,12]. Here we show that the latter phenomenon leads to

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