Low-loss negative refraction by laser induced magneto-electric cross-coupling

Abstract

We discuss the feasibility of negative refraction with reduced absorption in coherently driven atomic media. Coherent coupling of an electric and a magnetic dipole transition by laser fields induces magneto-electric cross-coupling and negative refraction at dipole densities which are considerably smaller than necessary to achieve a negative permeability. At the same time the absorption gets minimized due to destructive quantum interference and the ratio of negative refraction index to absorption becomes orders of magnitude larger than in systems without coherent cross-coupling. The proposed scheme allows for a fine-tuning of the refractive index. We derive a generalized expression for the impedance of a medium with magneto-electric cross coupling and show that impedance matching to vacuum can easily be achieved. Finally we discuss the tensorial properties of the medium response and derive expressions for the dependence of the refractive index on the propagation direction.

13 pages, 15 figures

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• Electromagnetic chirality-induced negative refraction with the same amplitude and anti-phase of the two chirality coefficients
• Large and tunable negative refractive index via electromagnetically induced chirality in a semiconductor quantum well nanostructure
• Broad-Band Negative Refraction via Simultaneous Multi-Electron Transitions
• Algebraic analysis of electromagnetic chirality-induced negative refractive index in a four-level atomic system
• 2D isotropic negative permeability in a Λ-type three-level atomic system