Negative refraction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

Negative refraction is the name for an electromagnetic phenomenon where light rays are refracted
at an interface in the reverse sense to that normally expected. Such an effect can be obtained using a
metamaterial which has been designed to achieve a negative value for both (electric) permittivity ε
and (magnetic) permeability μ, as in such cases the material can be assigned a negative refractive
index. Such materials are sometimes called "double negative" materials.[1]

Negative refraction occurs at interfaces between materials at which one has an ordinary positive
phase velocity (i.e. a positive refractive index), and the other has the more exotic negative phase
velocity (a negative refractive index).

Contents

1 Negative phase velocity

2 Negative refractive index

3 Refraction

4 References

5 See also

5.1 Electromagnetic interactions

Negative phase velocity

Negative phase velocity (NPV) is a property of light propagation in a medium. There are different
definitions of NPV, the most common being Veselago's original proposal[2] of opposition of
wavevector and (Abraham) Poynting vector, i.e. E×H; other common choices are opposition of
wavevector to group velocity, or to energy velocity. The use of "phase velocity" in the naming
convention, as opposed to the perhaps more appropriate "wave vector", follows since phase velocity
has the same sign as the wavevector.

A typical criterion used to determine Veselago NPV is that the dot product of the Poynting vector and
wavevector is negative (i.e. that {\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\vec {P}}\cdot {\vec {k}}<0}\scriptstyle
{\vec {P}}\cdot {\vec {k}}<0); however this definition is not covariant. Whilst this restriction is rarely
of practical significance, the criterion has nevertheless been generalized into a covariant form.[3] For
plane waves propagating in a Veselago NPV medium, the electric field, magnetic field and wave
vector follow a left-hand rule, rather than the usual right-hand rule. This gives rise to the name "left-
handed (meta)materials". However, the terms left-handed and right-handed can also arise in the
study of chiral media, so this terminology is best avoided.
Negative refractive index

A comparison of refraction in a left-handed metamaterial to that in a normal material

File:Negative refraction.ogv

Video representing negative refraction of light at uniform planar interface.

We can choose to avoid directly considering the Poynting vector and wavevector or a propagating
light field, and consider instead the response of the materials directly. Assuming an achiral material,
we consider what values of permittivity ε and permeability µ result in negative phase velocity (NPV).
Since both ε and µ are in general complex, their imaginary parts do not have to be negative for a
passive (i.e. lossy) material to display negative refraction. The most general Veselago criterion
applying to ε and µ is that of Depine and Lakhtakia,[4] although other less general forms exist.[5] The
Depine-Lakhtakia criterion for negative phase velocity is

{\displaystyle \epsilon _{r}|\mu |+\mu _{r}|\epsilon |<0,}\epsilon _{r}|\mu |+\mu _{r}|\epsilon |<0,

where {\displaystyle \epsilon _{r},\mu _{r}}\epsilon _{r},\mu _{r} are the real valued parts of ε and µ,
respectively. However, negative refraction (negative refractive index) and negative phase velocity can
be distinct from each other, even in passive materials,[6] but also in active materials.[7]

Typically, the refractive index {\displaystyle n}n is determined using