Wave Propagation in Periodic Plasma Media: A Semiclassical Approach

Abstract

The propagation of electromagnetic waves in unmagnetized periodic plasma media is studied using the semiclassical wave packet approximation. The formalism gives rise to Berry effect terms in the equation of motion. The Berry effect manifests itself as Rytov polarization rotation law and the polarization-dependent Hall effect. The formalism is also applied to the case of non-periodic inhomogeneous plasma media.