English

Negative Refraction Requires Strong Inhomogeneity

Optics 2007-10-02 v1

Abstract

The paper establishes explicit lower bounds for the lattice cell size of periodic structures (metamaterials and photonic crystals) capable of supporting backward waves and producing negative refraction. At optical frequencies, this result implies strong inhomogeneity, in the sense that the cell size cannot be negligible relative to the vacuum wavelength and the Bloch wavelength.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.0011,
  title  = {Negative Refraction Requires Strong Inhomogeneity},
  author = {Igor Tsukerman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.0011},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

6 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:23:47.137Z