2005/02/12 by Ivan Biaggio, Biaggio, Ivan
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0502308
LaTeX/RevTeX, 2 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2005/02/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
This is a comment inspired by recently published results [Y. Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 157404 (2003)] that introduced the name "amphoteric refraction" for the fact that at the interface with an optically anisotropic material there can be a range of incidence angles for which the component of the Poynting vector parallel to the interface changes sign upon refraction. The latter effect is a well-known consequence of optical anisotropy, but it was described as a new negative refraction phenomenon that can be put in the same class as the negative refraction observed at an interface with a left-handed material with negative refractive index.