English

Resolving the wave-vector in negative refractive media: The sign of $\sqrt{Z}$

Materials Science 2009-11-10 v1 Optics

Abstract

We address the general issue of resolving the wave-vector in complex electromagnetic media including negative refractive media. This requires us to make a physical choice for the sign of a square-root imposed merely by conditions of causality. By considering the analytic behaviour of the wave-vector in the complex plane, it is shown that there are a total of eight physically distinct cases in the four quadrants of two Riemann sheets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0402570,
  title  = {Resolving the wave-vector in negative refractive media: The sign of $\sqrt{Z}$},
  author = {S. Anantha Ramakrishna and Olivier J. F. Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0402570},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

3 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX