Resolving the wave vector in negative refractive index media

2004/02/24 by S. Anantha Ramakrishna, Olivier J. F. Martin · 4 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #physics.optics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1364/ol.30.002626

3 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX

arxiv created 2004/02/24 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

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 of the sign of a square root imposed merely by conditions of causality. By considering the analytic behavior 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.

Citations

• THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF SUBSTANCES WITH SIMULTANEOUSLY NEGATIVE VALUES OF ε AND μ

Cited by

• Fourier theory of linear gain media
• On the refractive index for a nonmagnetic two-component medium: Resolution of a controversy
• When does the choice of the refractive index of a linear, homogeneous, isotropic, active, dielectric medium matter?
• Optical forces between coupled plasmonic nanoparticles near metal surfaces and negative index material waveguides