Causality, Non-Locality and Negative Refraction

Abstract

The importance of spatial non-locality in the description of negative refraction in electromagnetic materials has been put forward recently. We develop a theory of negative refraction in homogeneous and isotropic media, based on first principles, and that includes non-locality in its full generality. The theory shows that both dissipation and spatial non-locality are necessary conditions for the existence of negative refraction. It also provides a sufficient condition in materials with weak spatial non-locality. These fundamental results should have broad implications in the theoretical and practical analyses of negative refraction of electromagnetic and other kinds of waves.

8 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Electromagnetic properties of viscous charged fluids
• Correct Definition of the Poynting Vector in Electrically and Magnetically Polarizable Medium Reveals that Negative Refraction is Impossible

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Extreme Spatial Dispersion in Nonlocally-Resonant Elastic Metamaterials
• Optical Response of Finite-Thickness Ultrathin Plasmonic Films
• Optical signatures of shear collective modes in strongly interacting Fermi liquids
• Refractive index and generalized polarizability
• Wavevector-dependent optical properties from wavevector-independent proper conductivity tensor
• Microscopic theory of refractive index applied to metamaterials: Effective current response tensor corresponding to standard relation $n^2={\epsilon }_{\mathrm{eff}}{\mu }_{\mathrm{eff}}$
• Neuronal cable equations derived from the hydrodynamic motion of charged particles
• Tunneling of Elastic Waves in a Tapered Waveguide