Tom G Mackay and Akhlesh Lakhtakia 2005 New J. Phys. 7 165 doi:10.1088/1367-2630/7/1/165
Tom G Mackay1,3 and Akhlesh Lakhtakia2
Show affiliationsPart of Focus on Negative Refraction
The propagation of electromagnetic plane waves in a material with simultaneous mirror-conjugated and racemic chirality (SMCRC) characteristics is investigated. General conditions for negative phase velocity (NPV) (i.e., phase velocity directed opposite to the time-averaged Poynting vector) are derived for both unirefringent and birefringent propagation. Through numerical studies, it is demonstrated that NPV propagation arises provided that the magnitude of the magnetoelectric constitutive parameter is sufficiently large compared with the magnitudes of dielectric and magnetic constitutive parameters. However, the relative magnitude of the magnetoelectric constitutive parameter has little bearing upon the directions, which support NPV propagation. The propensity for NPV propagation is much enhanced through incorporating dielectric and magnetic constitutive parameters, which are negative-real. A wide range of constitutive parameter values are considered in order to accommodate the possibilities offered by the fabrication of artificial SMCRC materials.
41.20.Jb Electromagnetic wave propagation; radiowave propagation
Issue 1 (August 2005)
Received 22 March 2005, accepted for publication 8 August 2005
Tom G Mackay and Akhlesh Lakhtakia 2005 New J. Phys. 7 165
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