Negative refraction in active and passive media: a discussion of various criteria

Abstract

There are three widely-used conditions for characterizing negative refraction in isotropic dielectric-magnetic materials. Here we demonstrate that whilst all the different conditions are equivalent for purely passive media, they are distinct if active media are considered. Further, these criteria can also be applied to negative refraction in acoustic materials, where we might replace the dielectric permittivity $\epsilon$ with a bulk modulus $\kappa$, and the magnetic permeability $\mu$ with the mass density $\rho$.

3 pages, 4 figures; a revised version of the paper Microwave Opt. Tech. Lett. 50, 1804 (2008). Acoustics comments added 2014

References in corpus (6)

• The negative index of refraction demystified
• Fresnel equations and the refractive index of active media
• Causality-based criteria for a negative refractive index must be used with care
• On resolving the refractive index and the wave vector
• Negative refraction in active and passive media: a discussion of various criteria
• Transformation devices: carpets in space and space-time

Cited by in corpus (6)

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• The refractive index and wave vector in passive or active media
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• Negative index of refraction in a four-level system with magnetoelectric cross coupling and local field corrections