What are the left-handed media and what is interesting about them?

Abstract

We review the intensively discussed ideas about wave propagation and refraction in media where both electric permittivity and magnetic permeability are negative. The criticism against negative refraction as violating the causality principle is considered. Starting from the initial wave equations, refraction of beams at the boundary of a left-handed medium is analyzed. The physics of a perfect lens formed by a flat layer of a left-handed material is considered.

arXiv comment21 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Limitations on Sub-Diffraction Imaging with a Negative Refractive Index Slab
• Refraction at Media with Negative Refractive Index
• Subwavelength imaging by a left-handed material superlens
• Comment on "Wave Refraction in Negative-Index Media: Always Positive and Very Inhomogeneous"
• Comment on "Total Negative Refraction in Crystals for Ballistic Electrons and Light"

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Unusual Resonators: Plasmonics, Metamaterials, and Random Media
• Fermat Principle for spinning light
• Electromagnetic helicity in complex media
• Negative Refraction in Perspective
• Geometrical Spinoptics and the Optical Hall Effect
• Anderson localization in metamaterials and other complex media
• Effects of polarization on the transmission and localization of classical waves in weakly scattering metamaterials
• Plasmon mechanism of light transmission through a metal film or a plasma layer
• Localization length of nearly periodic layered metamaterials
• Hot Plasma Waves Surrounding the Schwarzschild Event Horizon in a Veselago Medium
• Dispersion Modes of Hot Plasma for Schwarzschild de-Sitter Horizon in a Veselago Medium
• Energy dispersion relation for negative refraction (NR) materials
• Hot Plasma Modes Across Reissner-Nordstrom de Sitter Horizon in a Veselago Medium
• Why is the refractive index cannot be negative