2007/02/28 by Aleksandar Gjurchinovski, Aleksandar Skeparovski
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Photonic Crystals and Applications #physics.class-ph #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0143-0807/28/5/017
published as Eur. J. Phys. 28, 933-951 (2007) · 11 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX 4, comments welcome; V2: revised, Fig. 7 added; V3: several typos corrected, accepted for publication in European Journal of Physics (online at: http://stacks.iop.org/EJP/28/933)
openalex publication_date 2007/07/30 · arxiv created 2007/12/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We introduce a novel approach to the problem of refraction of a light ray at an interface between two homogeneous, isotropic and non-dispersive transparent optical materials in uniform rectilinear motion. The approach is an amalgamate of the original Fermat's principle and the fact that an isotropic optical medium at rest becomes optically anisotropic in a frame where the medium is moving at a constant velocity. We implemented the method to investigate the refraction at a vacuum-material interface, when the optical material is moving: a) parallel to the interface; and b) perpendicular to the interface. In each case, we give a detailed analysis of the obtained refraction formula, and in the latter case, we notice and describe an an intriguing backward refraction of light.