Related papers: The negative index of refraction demystified
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…
Using a TE/TM decomposition for an angular plane-wave spectrum of free random electromagnetic waves and matched boundary conditions, we derive the probability density function for the energy density of the vector electric field in the…
We investigate in this chapter the mathematical models for electromagnetic wave propagation in dispersive isotropic passive linear media for which the dielectric permittivity $\varepsilon$ and magnetic permeability $\mu$ depend on the…
The planewave response of a linear passive material generally cannot be characterized by a single scalar refractive index, as directionality of energy flow and multiple wavevectors may need to be considered. This is especially significant…
We model propagation of electromagnetic waves in a medium, which is inhomogeneous with a rough layer, and which hides an object. We first get an effective medium, and then we solve the problem by integral equations.
We present a linear mode analysis of the relativistic MHD equations in the presence of finite electrical conductivity. Starting from the fully relativistic covariant formulation, we derive the dispersion relation in the limit of small…
Materials that exhibit loss or gain have a complex valued refractive index $n$. Nevertheless, when considering the propagation of optical pulses, using a complex $n$ is generally inconvenient -- hence the standard choice of real-valued…
We study Maxwell's equations in random media with small fluctuations of the electric permittivity. We consider a setup where the waves propagate toward a preferred direction, called range. We decompose the electromagnetic wave field in…
We investigate the reflection and refraction behaviors of electromagnetic waves at the interface between an isotropic material and the anisotropic medium with a unique dispersion relation. We show that the refraction angle of whether phase…
The transmission of a wave through a randomly chosen `pile of plates' typically decreases exponentially with the number of plates, a phenomenon closely related to Anderson localisation. In apparent contradiction we construct disordered…
Interfaces between media with negative relative refractive index generically support propagating electromagnetic surface polariton modes with large wavenumber. The relation of these modes to a recent prediction by Pendry of ``perfect (real)…
We systematically study a collection of refractive phenomena that can possibly occur at the interface of a two-dimensional photonic crystal, with the use of the wave vector diagram formalism. Cases with a single propagating beam (in the…
We report a detailed and systematic numerical study of wave propagation through a coherently amplifying random one-dimensional medium. The coherent amplification is modeled by introducing a uniform imaginary part in the site energies of the…
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 investigate the analytic continuation of wave equations into the complex position plane. For the particular case of electromagnetic waves we provide a physical meaning for such an analytic continuation in terms of a family of closely…
The phase velocity of plane waves propagating in an isotropic chiral medium can be simultaneously positive for left-circularly polarized light and negative for right-circularly polarized light(or vice versa). The constitutive parameter…
Negative refraction is known to occur in materials that simultaneously possess a negative electric permittivity and magnetic permeability; hence they are termed negative index materials. However, there are no known natural materials that…
Surface wave propagation at the interface between different types of gyrotropic materials and an isotropic negatively refracting medium, in which the relative permittivity and relative permeability are, simultaneously, negative is…
The quest to manipulate light propagation in ways not possible with natural media has driven the development of artificially structured metamaterials. One of the most striking effects is negative refraction, where the light beam deflects…
We show that negative refraction in materials can occur at frequencies $\omega$ where the real parts of the permittivity $\veps(\omega)$ and the permeability $\mu(\omega)$ have different sign, and that light with such frequencies can…