Scattering by a three-dimensional object composed of the simplest Lorentz-nonreciprocal medium

Abstract

The simplest Lorentz-nonreciprocal medium has the constitutive relations (${\bf D} =\epso {\bf E} -{\bf Γ}\times {\bf H}$ and ${\bf B} =\muo {\bf H} + {\bf Γ}\times{\bf E}$). Scattering by a three-dimensional object composed of this medium was investigated using the extended boundary condition method. Scattering by this object in free space must be attributed to non-zero $\Gamma =|\Gamma |$. The differential scattering efficiency is immune to the transformation of the incident toroidal electric field phasor into a poloidal electric field phasor, or \textit{vice versa}, and a consequence of this source-invariance is the polarization-state invariance of the differential scattering efficiency when the irradiating field is a plane wave. Both the total scattering and forward-scattering efficiencies of an ellipsoid composed of the simplest Lorentz-nonreciprocal medium are maximum when the plane wave is incident in a direction {coparallel (but not antiparallel)} to $\mathbf{\Gamma }$, and the backscattering efficiency is minimum when $\mathbf{\Gamma }$ is {parallel} to the incidence direction. The total scattering and the forward-scattering efficiencies are maximum when the incidence direction is parallel to the largest semi-axis of the ellipsoid if the incidence direction is coparallel (but not antiparallel) to $\mathbf{\Gamma }$. Lorentz nonreciprocity in an object is thus intimately connected to the shape of that object in affecting the scattered field.

22 pages, 8 figures