Related papers: The refractive index and wave vector in passive or…
We examine the refractive index from the viewpoint of modern first-principles materials physics. We first argue that the standard formula, $n^2 = \varepsilon_{\mathrm r} \mu_{\mathrm r}$, is generally in conflict with fundamental principles…
The identification of the refractive index and wave vector for general (possibly active) linear, isotropic, homogeneous, and non-spatially dispersive media is discussed. Correct conditions for negative refraction necessarily include the…
There exists a class of realizable, active media for which the refractive index cannot be defined as an analytic function in the upper half-plane of complex frequency. The conventional definition of the refractive index based on analyticity…
The set of realizable refractive indices as a function of frequency is considered. For passive media we give bounds for the refractive index variation in a finite bandwidth. Special attention is given to the loss and index variation in the…
We report an asymmetric behavior of optical pulses during their propagation through a time-varying linear optical medium. The refractive index of the medium is considered to be varying with time and complex such that a sufficient amount of…
We derive an approach to define the causal direction of the wavevector of modes in optical metamaterials, which in turn, determines signs of refractive index and impedance as a function of {\it real and imaginary} parts of dielectric…
In this Letter the expression for the refractive index of de Broglie wave in the presence of a potential field is obtained and based on this, the physical meanings of negative index of refraction is revealed. We demonstrate that the…
The refractive index of a dielectric medium comprising both passive and inverted components in its permittivity was determined using two methods: (i) in the time domain, a finite-difference algorithm to compute the frequency-domain…
A modulation of refractive index can move at the speed of light. How it interacts with an electromagnetic wave? Does it reflect? We show that an incident electromagnetic wave, depending on its frequency either is totally transmitted with a…
We study numerically the propagation of two-color light pulses through a metamaterial doped with active atoms such that the carrier frequencies of the pulses are in resonance with two atomic transitions in the $\Lambda$ configuration and…
We study electromagnetic wave propagation in mediums in which the effective relative permittivity and the effective relative permeability are allowed to take any value in the upper half of the complex plane. A general condition is derived…
The optical refractive index of a moving regular medium is calculated by using the Lorentz transformation in this note. It is shown that in some velocity region of medium moving relative to the initial frame K, the moving medium may possess…
We are considered the propagation of the fundamental and second harmonic solitary waves under the slowly varying envelope pulses approximation in a quadratic nonlinear medium that characterized by negative refraction index at the frequency…
Perfect lensing and cloaking based on complementary media are possible applications of negative refractive index materials. Metamaterials represent the natural candidates to realize such property by tailoring the effective dielectric…
We calculate the index of refraction of sodium matter waves propagating through a gas of nitrogen molecules. We use a recent ab initio potential for the ground state of the NaN_2 Van der Waals complex to perform quantal close-coupling…
The sign of the refractive index of any medium is soley determined by the requirement that the propagation of an electromagnetic wave obeys Einstein causality. Our analysis shows that this requirement predicts that the real part of the…
In light refraction between two transparent media, Snell's law describes the relationship between the incident angle and refraction angle. The refractive index is usually determined from Snell's law using the minimum deviation angle through…
Here we re-examine one of the most basic quantities in optics: the refractive index. Considering propagation in a plane, we first develop a general formalism for calculating the direction dependent refractive index in a general…
Light propagation through a normal medium is determined not only by the real part of the refractive index but also by its imaginary part, which represents optical gain and loss. Therefore, two media with different gain and loss landscapes…
We compute the refractive indices of a photon propagating in strong magnetic fields on the basis of the analytic representation of the vacuum polarization tensor obtained in our previous paper. When the external magnetic field is strong…