A general energy dispersion relation is developed for metamaterials having the negative-refraction (NR) property. It is shown that absorption effects are involved with NR phenomena, and the conditions under which NR occurs are discussed. Simple equations for NR are developed using Lorentzian models.
When a thin structure in which negative refraction occurs (a metallo-dielectric or a photonic crystal) is illuminated by a beam, the reflected and transmitted beam can undergo a large negative lateral shift. This phenomenon can be seen as an interferential enhancement of the geometrical shift and can be considered as a signature of negative refraction.
The planewave response of a linear passive material generally cannot be characterized by a single scalar refractive index, as directionality of energy flow and multiple wavevectors may need to be considered. This is especially significant for materials which support negative refraction, negative phase velocity, and counterposition. By means of a numerical example based on a commonly studied bianisotropic material, our theoretical investigation revealed that: (i) negative (positive) refraction can arise even though the phase velocity is positive (negative); (ii) counterposition can arise in ins…
This work demonstrates the existence of both negative refraction and a negative refractive index in an optical uniaxial absorbent medium that can be characterized by ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices. Negative refraction occurs in any absorbent uniaxial medium if the real part of the extraordinary index is less than its imaginary part. The refractive index is negative when the incident medium is sufficiently dense and the incident angle exceeds a critical angle that is defined here.
A negative-phase-velocity condition derived by Depine and Lakhtakia [Microwave Opt Technol Lett 41 (2004) 315] for isotropic, homogeneous, passive, dielectric-magnetic materials is inapplicable as a negative-refraction condition for active materials.
Negative refraction is known to occur in materials that simultaneously possess a negative electric permittivity and magnetic permeability; hence they are termed negative index materials. However, there are no known natural materials that exhibit a negative index of refraction. In large part, interest in these materials is due to speculation that they could be used as perfect lenses with superresolution. We propose a new way of achieving negative refraction with currently available technology, based on transparent, metallo-dielectric multilayer structures. The advantage of these structures is t…
Negative reflection and negative refraction are exotic phenomena that can be achieved by platforms such as double-negative metamaterial, hyperbolic metamaterial, and phase-discontinuity metasurface. Recently, natural biaxial van der Waals (vdW) materials, which support extremely anisotropic, low-loss, and highly confined polaritons from infrared to visible regime, are emerging as promising candidates for planar reflective and refractive optics. Here, we introduce three degrees of freedom, namely interface, crystal direction, and electric tunability to manipulate the reflection and refraction o…
Negative refraction has attracted much interest for its promising capability in imaging applications. Such an effect can be implemented by negative index meta-materials, however, which are usually accompanied by high loss and demanding fabrication processes. Recently, alternative nonlinear approaches like phase conjugation and four wave mixing have shown advantages of low-loss and easy-to-implement, but associated problems like narrow accepting angles can still halt their practical applications. Here we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally a new scheme to realize negative refraction by…
A metamaterial with a negative effective index of refraction is made from a three-dimensional hexagonal lattice photonic crystal with a metallic basis embedded in foam. It has been simulated with Ansoft HFSSTM in a frequency range from 7.0 to 12.0 GHz. Simulated results tested experimentally and negative refraction verified in some frequencies. Experimental results are in excellent agreement with simulations.
Negative refraction through a triangular prism may be explained without assigning a negative refractive index to the prism by using array theory. For the case of a beam incident upon the wedge, the array theory accurately predicts the beam transmission angle through the prism and provides an estimate of the frequency interval at which negative refraction occurs. Negative refraction effects not only occur in prisms made of traditional metamaterial unit cells, such as magneto-dielectric spheres, but also in solid prisms made of completely filled, homogenous unit cells. In both prisms, the hypote…
We theoretically study negative refraction of inhomogeneous waves at the interface of lossy isotropic media. We obtain explicit (up to the sign) expressions for the parameters of a wave transmitted through the interface between two lossy media characterized by complex permittivity and permeability. We show that the criterion of negative refraction that requires negative permittivity and permeability can be used only in the case of a homogeneous incident wave at the interface between a lossless and lossy media. In a more general situation, when the incident wave is inhomogeneous, or both media …
By introducing a new mechanism based on purely imaginary conjugate metamaterials (PICMs), we reveal that bidirectional negative refraction and planar focusing can be obtained using a pair of PICMs, which is a breakthrough to the unidirectional limit in parity time (PT) symmetric systems. Compared with PT symmetric systems that require two different kinds of materials, the proposed negative refraction can be realized with only two identical media. In addition, asymmetric excitation with bidirectional total transmission is observed in our PICM system. Therefore, a new way to realize negative ref…
The paper establishes explicit lower bounds for the lattice cell size of periodic structures (metamaterials and photonic crystals) capable of supporting backward waves and producing negative refraction. At optical frequencies, this result implies strong inhomogeneity, in the sense that the cell size cannot be negligible relative to the vacuum wavelength and the Bloch wavelength.
Has the ten-year old quest for the optical superlens, based on Veselago's hypothesis of negative refraction, been a chimera? We argue that Pendry's alternative prescription of the silver superlens is nothing more than an application of the natural phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance that occurs in the noble metal films. This phenomenon does not predict the reality of Veselago's negative refractive index materials. We give a simple explanation of how this resonance achieves a field intensity enhancement at the interface of silver and air without involving the concept of negative refraction.
We show that nanosphere dispersed liquid crystal (NDLC) metamaterial can be characterized in near IR spectral region as an indefinite medium whose real parts of effective ordinary and extraordinary permittivities are opposite in signs. Based on this fact we design a novel electrooptic effect: external electric field driven switch between normal refraction, negative refraction and reflection of TM incident electromagnetic wave from the boundary vacuum/NDLC. A detailed analysis of its functionality is given based on effective medium theory combined with a study of negative refraction in anisotro…
In this article, it has been theoretically shown that broad angle negative refraction is possible with asymmetric anisotropic metamaterials constructed by only dielectrics or loss less semiconductors at the telecommunication and relative wavelength range. Though natural uniaxial materials can exhibit negative refraction, the maximum angle of negative refraction and critical incident angle lie in a very narrow range. This notable problem can be overcome by our proposed structure. In our structures, negative refraction originates from the highly asymmetric elliptical iso-frequency.This is artifi…
This letter proposes a quasi-planar chiral resonator suitable for the design of negative refractive index matamaterial. It is presented an analytical model for the determination of its polarizabilities, and the viability of negative refraction in chiral and racemic arrangements with the proposed inclusions is analyzed. The present analysis is expected to pave the way to the design of negative refractive index matamaterials made of a single kind of inclusions feasible from standard photo-etching techniques.
We demonstrate a scheme to utilize the stacked fishnet metamaterial for all-angle negative refraction and subwavelength imaging within a wide frequency range starting from zero frequency. The theoretical predictions are verified by the finite-difference-in-time-domain (FDTD) numerical simulations. The phenomena come from the negative evanescent coupling between the adjacent slab waveguides through the breathing air holes perforated on metal layers.
A perfect lens with unlimited resolution has always posed a challenge to both theoretical and experimental physicists. Recent developments in optical meta-materials promise an attractive approach towards perfect lenses using negative refraction to overcome the diffraction limit, improving resolution. However, those artificially engineered meta-materials usually company by high losses from metals and are extremely difficult to fabricate. An alternative proposal using negative refraction by four-wave mixing has attracted much interests recently, though most of existing experiments still require …
In accordance with Snel's law of refraction, whether a plane wave is refracted in the negative sense or positive sense at a planar boundary between two homogenous mediums is determined solely by the orientation of the real parts of the wavevectors involved. Thus, negative refraction should be distinguished from the associated but independent phenomenons of negative phase velocity, counterposition and negative deflection of energy flux. None of these phenomenons is Lorentz covariant.
We clarify the claims and errors in the paper "Criterion for Negative Refraction with Low Optical Losses from a Fundamental Principle of Causality" by Mark Stockman. Contrary to the central assertion in that paper, simple examples consistent with the basic inequality which Stockman discovered show that it is possible to have negative refraction and low loss in an arbitrarily large frequency window. Further examination of the paper reveals additional errors that invalidate his argument that active materials cannot have low loss and negative refraction in a frequency window. Also, we point out t…
There are three widely-used conditions for characterizing negative refraction in isotropic dielectric-magnetic materials. Here we demonstrate that whilst all the different conditions are equivalent for purely passive media, they are distinct if active media are considered. Further, these criteria can also be applied to negative refraction in acoustic materials, where we might replace the dielectric permittivity $ε$ with a bulk modulus $κ$, and the magnetic permeability $μ$ with the mass density $ρ$.
A novel open cavity formed by three 60-degree wedges of a photonic crystal with negative effective index is designed and studied. The quality factor of the open cavity can be larger than 2000. The influence of the interface termination on the resonant frequency and the quality factor is studied.
We identify a route towards achieving a negative index of refraction at optical frequencies based on coupling between plasmonic waveguides that support backwards waves. We show how modal symmetry can be exploited in metal-dielectric waveguide pairs to achieve negative refraction of both phase and energy. By properly controlling coupling between adjacent waveguides, a metamaterial consisting of a one-dimensional multilayer stack exhibiting an isotropic index of -1 can be achieved at a free-space wavelength of 400 nm. The general concepts developed here may inspire new low-loss metamaterial desi…
Artificial magnetism, negative permeability and negative refractive index are demonstrated in 3D-chiral metamaterial that shows giant polarization rotation and circular dichroism.
We theoretically propose that Weyl semimetals may exhibit negative refraction at some frequencies close to the plasmon frequency, allowing transverse magnetic (TM) electromagnetic waves with frequencies smaller than the plasmon frequency to propagate in the Weyl semimetals. The idea is justified by the calculation of reflection spectra, in which \textit{negative} refractive index at such frequencies gives physically correct spectra. In this case, a TM electromagnetic wave incident to the surface of the Weyl semimetal will be bent with a negative angle of refraction. We argue that the negative …
Refraction of obliquely incident plane waves due to the interface of a vacuous half-space and a half-space occupied by a simply moving, nondissipative, isotropic dielectric-magnetic medium is considered, when the medium's velocity lies parallel to the interface and in the plane of incidence. Counterposition of the refracted wavevector and time-averaged Poynting vector occurs when the medium's velocity is sufficiently large in magnitude and makes an obtuse angle with the incident wavevector. The counterposition induced by relative motion occurs whether the refraction is negative or positive whe…
It is found that the amphoteric refraction, i.e. the refraction can be either positive or negative depending on the incident angles, could occur at a planar interface associated with a uniaxially anisotropic positive index media (PIM) or an anisotropic negative index media (NIM). Particularly, the anomalous negative refraction can occur at a planar interface from an isotropic PIM to an anisotropic PIM, whereas the anomalous positive refraction occurs at the interface from an isotropic PIM to an anisotropic NIM. The optimal conditions to yield the two unusual refractions are obtained. The diffe…
We demonstrate perfect imaging in Maxwell's fish eye for microwaves. Our data show that the field of a line source is imaged with subwavelength resolution over superwavelength distances, provided the field is allowed to leave through passive outlets that play the role of a detector array in imaging.
Negative refraction provides an attractive platform to manipulate mid-infrared and terahertz radiation for molecular sensing and thermal radiation applications. However, its implementation based on available metamaterials and plasmonic media presents challenges associated with optical losses, limited spatial confinement, and lack of active tunability in this spectral range. Here, we demonstrate gate-tunable negative refraction at mid-infrared frequencies using hybrid topological polaritons in van der Waals heterostructures with high spatial confinement. We experimentally visualize wide-angle n…
In this article, we have theoretically investigated the performance of graphene-hexagonal Boron Nitride hyper crystals to demonstrate all angle negative refraction.Hexagonal Boron Nitride, the latest natural hyperbolic material; can be a very strong contender to form a hyper crystal with graphene due to its excellence as a graphene-compatible substrate. Although bare hexagonal Boron Nitride can exhibit negative refraction, the transmission is generally low due to its high reflective nature. On the other hand, due to two dimensional nature and metallic characteristics of graphene in the frequen…
In this paper we show that a negative index of refraction is not a direct implication of transformation optics with orientation-reversing diffeomorphisms. Rather a negative index appears due to a specific choice of sign freedom. Furthermore, we point out that the transformation designed lens, which relies on the concept of spacetime folding, does not amplify evanescent modes, in contrast to the Pendry-Veselago lens. Instead, evanescent modes at the image point are produced by a duplicated source and thus no imaging of the near field (perfect lensing) takes place.
The polarization-sensitive propagation in the anisotropic metamaterial (AMM) with double-sheeted hyperboloid dispersion relation is investigated from a purely wave propagation point of view. We show that TE and TM polarized waves present significantly different characteristics which depend on the polarization. The omnidirectional total reflection and oblique total transmission can occur in the interface associated with the AMM. If appropriate conditions are satisfied, one polarized wave exhibits the total refraction, while the other presents the total reflection. We find that the opposite amph…
Negative index of refraction has become an accepted part of transformation optics, which is encountered in transformations that change the orientation of the manifold. Based on this concept, various designs of perfect lenses have been proposed, which all rely on a folding of space or spacetime, where the maps from electromagnetic space to laboratory space are multi-valued. Recently, a new concept for perfect imaging has been proposed by Leonhardt and Philbin, which also uses multi-valued maps, but does neither include negative index of refraction nor an amplification of evanescent modes. In th…
Perfect imaging has been believed to rely on negative refraction, but here we show that an ordinary positively-refracting optical medium may form perfect images as well. In particular, we establish a mathematical proof that Maxwell's fish eye in two-dimensional integrated optics makes a perfect instrument with a resolution not limited by the wavelength of light. We also show how to modify the fish eye such that perfect imaging devices can be made in practice. Our method of perfect focusing may also find applications outside of optics, in acoustics, fluid mechanics or quantum physics, wherever …
The condition for a negative index of refraction with respect to the vacuum index is established in terms of permittivity and permeability susceptibilities. It is found that the imposition of analyticity to satisfy the Kramers-Kronig relations is a sufficiently general criterion for a physical negative index. The satisfaction of the Kramers-Kronig relations is a manifestation of the principle of causality and the predicted frequency region of negative index agrees with the Depine-Lakhtakia condition for the phase velocity being anti-directed to the Poynting vector, although the conditions pres…
We simulate and discuss novel spatio-temporal propagation effects that relate specifically to pulsed, phase-mismatched second harmonic generation in a negative index material having finite length. Using a generic Drude model for the dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability, the fundamental and second harmonic frequencies are tuned so that the respective indices of refraction are negative for the pump and positive for the second harmonic signal. A phase-locking mechanism causes part of the second harmonic signal generated at the entry surface to become trapped and dragged along by the …
Bi-isotropic and isotropic negative refractive index (NRI) 3D metamaterials made from periodic arrangements of chiral split ring resonators (SRRs) are proposed and demonstrated. An analytical theory for the characterization and design of these metamaterials is provided and validated by careful full-wave electromagnetic simulations. The reported results are expected to pave the way to the design of practical 3D bi-isotropic and isotropic NRI metamaterials made from a single kind of inclusions.
A fundamental building block for nanophotonics is the ability to achieve negative refraction of polaritons, because this could enable the demonstration of many unique nanoscale applications such as deep-subwavelength imaging, superlens, and novel guiding. However, to achieve negative refraction of highly squeezed polaritons, such as plasmon polaritons in graphene and phonon polaritons in boron nitride (BN) with their wavelengths squeezed by a factor over 100, requires the ability to flip the sign of their group velocity at will, which is challenging. Here we reveal that the strong coupling bet…
In this paper we describe an application of the finite difference method to obtain the transverse magnetic photonic band gap diagram of a photonic crystal. The strategy of this method is to formulate the Maxwell equations in finite differences in order to write a computational code. We present experiments that confirm the validity of the calculations of the photonic band diagram as well as the refraction indix of such structure. All calculations were made for two dimensional metallic photonic crystal.
Whether or not perfect imaging is obtained in the mirrored version of Maxwell's fisheye lens is debated in the comment/reply sequence [Blaikie-2010njp, Leonhardt-2010njp] discussing Leonhardt's original paper [Leonhardt-2009njp]. Here we show that causal solutions can be obtained without the need for an "active localized drain", contrary to the claims in [Leonhardt-2010njp].
We develop a theory to compute and interpret the photonic band structure of a periodic array of metallic helices for the first time. Interesting features of band structure include the ingenuous longitudinal and circularly polarized eigenmodes, the wide polarization gap [Science 325, 1513 (2009)], and the helical symmetry guarantees the existence of negative group velocity bands at both sides of the polarization gap and band crossings pinned at the zone boundary with fixed frequencies. A direct proof of negative refraction via a chiral route [Science 306, 1353 (2004)] is achieved for the first …
Kinsler and Favaro point out correctly that Blaikie's numerical solution of Maxwell's equations in Maxwell's fish eye is causal and hence valid, a solution where no perfect image is formed. It is wrong to conclude from the existence of a causal solution with perfect imaging that one without perfect resolution is not causal; both are allowed by causality. However, Maxwell's fish eye can still perfectly image, as the Reply shows.
We design three-dimensional (3D) metallic nanowire media with different structures and numerically demonstrate that they can be homogeneous effective indefinite anisotropic media by showing that their dispersion relations are hyperbolic. For a finite slab, a nice fitting procedure is exploited to obtain the dispersion relations from which we retrieve the effective permittivities. The pseudo focusing for the real 3D wire medium agrees very well with the homogeneous medium having the effective permittivity tensor of the wire medium. Studies also show that in the long-wavelength limit, the hyperb…
We introduce the concept of the inverse prism as the dual of the conventional prism and deduce from this duality an implementation of it based on temporal discontinuity and spatial dispersion provided by anisotropy. Moreover, we show that this inverse prism exhibits the following three unique properties: chromatic refraction birefringence, ordinary-monochromatic and extraordinary- polychromatic temporal refraction, and linear-to-Lissajous polarization transformation.
We found that a single negative material has a character of zero-refraction in near field, and point out that the mechanism of a metal superlens to image with the resolution exceeding the diffraction limitation is different from that of a perfect lens made of a double negative material. The principle of metal superlens is disclosed. Our numerical results based on the zero-refraction character coincide with the experimental results well. This work brings new understanding about the single negative materials and will lead the applications of metal superlens in right way.
We introduce an improved and simplified structure made of periodic arrays of pairs of H-shaped metallic wires that offer a potentially simpler approach in building negative-index materials. Using simulations and microwave experiments, we have investigated the negative-index n properties of these structures. We have measured experimentally both the transmittance and the reflectance properties and found unambiguously that a negative refractive index with Re(n)<0 and Im(n) <Re(n). The same is true for epsilon and mu. Our results show that H-shaped wire pairs can be used very effectively in produc…
We extend designs of perfect lenses to the focussing of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating at the interface between two anisotropic media of opposite permittivity sign. We identify the role played by the components of anisotropic and heterogeneous tensors of permittivity and permeability, deduced from a coordinate transformation, in the dispersion relation governing propagation of SPPs. We illustrate our theory with three-dimensional finite element computations for focussing of SPPs by perfect flat and cylindrical lenses.
An array of pairs of parallel gold nanorods is shown to have a negative refractive index n'=-0.3 at the optical communication wavelength of 1.5 micron. This effect results from the plasmon resonance in the pairs of nanorods for both the electric and magnetic components of light. The refractive index is retrieved from the direct phase and amplitude measurements for transmission and reflection, which are all in excellent agreement with our finite difference time domain simulations. The refraction critically depends on the phase of the transmitted wave, which emphasizes the importance of phase me…
We present experimental demonstration of phase conjugation using nonlinear metamaterial elements. Active split-ring resonators loaded with varactor diodes are demonstrated theoretically to act as phase-conjugating or time-reversing discrete elements when parametrically pumped and illuminated with appropriate frequencies. The metamaterial elements were fabricated and shown experimentally to produce a time reversed signal. Measurements confirm that a discrete array of phase-conjugating elements act as a negatively-refracting time reversal RF lens only 0.12$λ$ thick.
The widely-accepted theoretical treatment of the electromagnetic boundary problem of evanescent wave transfer at an interface between a normal medium of n=1 and an ideal negative index medium of n=-1 neglects the non-zero induced surface current and charge densities at the interface and is self-inconsistent. We re-solve the electromagnetic boundary problem by taking into account the non-zero induced surface current and charge densities that have been neglected so far by others. We give the exact induced surface current and charge distributions for this special case and solve the refracted and …
I compute from first principles the local heating rate $q$ (the amount of electromagnetic energy converted to heat per unit time per unit volume) for electromagnetic waves propagating in magnetically and electrically polarizable media. I find that, in magnetic media, this rate has two separate contributions, $q^{(V)}$ and $q^{(S)}$, the first coming from the volume of the medium and the second from its surface. I argue that the second law of thermodynamics requires that the volume contribution be positive and that this requirement, in turn, prohibits negative refraction. This result holds for …
Mediums which do not support the propagation of plane waves with negative phase velocity (NPV) when viewed at rest can support NPV propagation when they are viewed in a reference frame which is uniformly translated at sufficiently high velocity. Thus, relativistic negative refraction may be exploited in astronomical scenarios.
It has been shown that for left-handed metamaterials and generally for negative refraction media the refraction index cannot be entered unequivocally and cannot be considered as real, and especially as negative. This index for above referred media is not expedient
We discuss and clarify some misleading statements appeared in a recent article on negative refraction in metamaterials. In this comment, we straighten the physical meaning and underlying phenomena behind negative refraction and negative index metamaterials and show that these phenomena are perfectly consistent with causality. It is hoped that this comment draws the attention of authors, reviewers and readers to the large body of rigorous analytical, numerical, and experimental evidence in favor of negative refraction at a single interface, so as to avoid reviving settled debates which mislead,…
A discussion of a question, studied earlier by V.Veselago in 1967 and by J. Pendry in 2000, is given. The question is: can a slab of the material with negative refraction make a perfect lens? Pendry's conclusion was: yes, it can. Our conclusion is: no, in practice it cannot, because of the fluctuations of the refraction coefficient of the slab. Resolution ability of linear isoplanatic optical instruments is discussed.
Negative refraction is a peculiar wave propagation phenomenon that occurs when a wave crosses a boundary between a regular medium and a medium with both constitutive parameters negative at the given frequency. The phase and group velocities of the transmitted wave then turn anti-parallel. Here we propose a temporal analogue of the negative refraction phenomenon using time-dependent media. Instead of transmitting the wave through a spatial boundary we transmit it through an artificial temporal boundary, created by switching both parameters from constant to dispersive with frequency. We show tha…