We investigate the reflection properties of electromagnetic/optical waves in isotropic chiral media. When the chiral parameter is strong enough, we show that an unusual \emph{negative reflection} occurs at the interface of the chiral medium and a perfectly conducting plane, where the incident wave and one of reflected eigenwaves lie in the same side of the boundary normal. Using such a property, we further demonstrate that such a conducting plane can be used for focusing in the strong chiral medium. The related equations under paraxial optics approximation are deduced. In a special case of chiral medium, the chiral nihility, one of the bi-reflections disappears and only single reflected eigenwave exists, which goes exactly opposite to the incident wave. Hence the incident and reflected electric fields will cancel each other to yield a zero total electric field. In another word, any electromagnetic waves entering the chiral nihility with perfectly conducting plane will disappear.
Several results concerning active media or metamaterials are proved and discussed. In particular, we consider the permittivity, permeability, wave vector, and refractive index, and discuss stability, refraction, gain, and fundamental limitations resulting from causality.
It is known that the two eigen plane waves incident to the generalized soft-and-hard/DB (GSHDB) boundary are reflected as from the PEC or PMC boundary, i.e., with reflection coefficients $-1$ or $+1$, for any angle of incidence. The present paper discusses a more general class of boundaries by requiring that the reflection coefficients $R_+$ and $R_-$, corresponding to the two eigen plane waves, have opposite values, $R_\pm=\pm R$ with $R$ independent of the angle of incidence. It turns out that, there are two possibilities, $R=1$ for the class of GSHDB boundaries, and $R=j$ for another class,…
We derive an expression for the Maxwell stress tensor in a magnetic dielectric medium specified by its permittivity "epsilon" and permeability "mu." The derivation proceeds from the generalized form of the Lorentz law, which specifies the force exerted by the electromagnetic E and H fields on the polarization P and magnetization M of ponderable media. Our stress tensor differs from the well-known tensors of Abraham and Minkowski, which have been at the center of a century-old controversy surrounding the momentum of the electromagnetic field in transparent materials.
A low loss propagating electromagnetic wave is shown to exist at a gradual interface between two lossy conductive media. The electromagnetic frequency range of this phenomenon may span from UV optics to RF range. In particular, it is demonstrated that such a surface wave may be guided by a seafloor-seawater interface and it may be used in radio communication and imaging underwater. Similar surface waves may also be guided by various tissue boundaries inside a human body. For example, such surface wave solutions may exist at planar interfaces between skull bones and grey matter inside a human h…
It is proposed a natural and consistent division of the momentum of electromagnetic waves in linear, non-dispersive and non-absorptive dielectric and magnetic media into material and electromagnetic parts. The material part is calculated using directly the Lorentz force law and the electromagnetic momentum density has the same form than in vacuum, without an explicit dependence on the properties of the media. The consistency of the treatment is verified through the obtention of a correct momentum balance equation in many examples and showing the compatibility of the division with the Einstein'…
The most general linear and local set of boundary conditions, involving relations between the normal components of the D and B vectors and tangential components of the E and H vectors at each point of the boundary, are considered in this paper. Reflection of a plane wave from a boundary defined by general conditions in an isotropic half space is analyzed and an analytic expression for the reflection dyadic is derived. It is shown that any plane wave can be decomposed in two components which do not interact in reflection. Properties of plane waves matched to the general boundary are given. Cert…
We examine the force of the electromagnetic radiation on linear, isotropic, homogeneous media specified in terms of their permittivity epsilon and permeability mu. A formula is proposed for the electromagnetic Lorentz force on the magnetization M, which is treated here as an Amperian current loop. Using the proposed formula, we demonstrate conservation of momentum in several cases that are amenable to rigorous analysis based on the classical Maxwell equations, the Lorentz law of force, and the constitutive relations. Our analysis yields precise expressions for the density of the electromagneti…
Two previously studied classes of electromagnetic media, labeled as those of Q media and P media, are decomposed according to the natural decomposition introduced by Hehl and Obukhov. Six special cases based on either non-existence or sole existence of the three Hehl-Obukhov components, are defined for both medium classes.
Spatially dispersive (also known as non-local) electromagnetic media are considered where the parameters defining the permittivity relation vary periodically. Maxwell's equations give rise to a difference equation corresponding to the Floquet modes. A complete set of approximate solutions is calculated which are valid when the inhomogeneity is small. This is applied to inhomogeneous wire media. A new feature arises when considering spatially dispersive media, that is the existence of coupled modes.
The reflection and transmission of a few-cycle laser pulse impinging on two parallel thin metal layers have been analyzed. The two layers, with a thickness much smaller than the skin depth of the incoming radiation field, are represented by current sheets embedded in three dielectrics, all with different index of refraction. The dynamics of the surface currents and the scattered radiation field are described by the coupled system of Maxwell-Lorentz equations. When applying the plane wave modeling assumptions, these reduce to a hybrid system of two delay differential equations for the electron …
Two basic classes of electromagnetic media, recently defined and labeled as those of P media and Q media, are generalized to define the class of PQ media. Plane wave propagation in the general PQ medium is studied and the quartic dispersion equation is derived in analytic form applying four-dimensional dyadic formalism. The result is verified by considering various special cases of PQ media for which the dispersion equation is known to decompose to two quadratic equations or be identically satisfied (media with no dispersion equation). As a numerical example, the dispersion surface of a PQ med…
We develop a general formalism to treat reflection of spherical electromagnetic waves from a spherical surface. Our main objective is interpretation of radio wave signals produced by cosmic ray interactions with Earth's atmosphere which are observed by the Antarctica based ANITA detector after reflection off the ice surface. The incident wave is decomposed into plane waves and each plane wave is reflected off the surface using the standard Fresnel formalism. For each plane wave the reflected wave is assumed to be locally a plane wave. This is a very reasonable assumption and there are no uncon…
In this paper an analytical approach for calculating scattering matrix elements for the case of normal incidence of the plane electromagnetic waves on the square patch-type Frequency Selective Surface (FSS), which is placed at the interface between two dielectric media is proposed. Analytical expressions for the reflection and transmission coefficients are shown to be accurate enough for practical purposes.
Two key types of inhomogeneous spatially dispersive media are described, both based on a spatially dispersive generalisation of the single resonance model of permittivity. The boundary conditions for two such media with different properties are investigated using Lagrangian and distributional methods. Wave packet solutions to Maxwell's equations, where the permittivity varies and is periodic in the medium, are then found.
We extend the usual derivation of the wave equation from Maxwell's equations in vacuum to the case of electromagnetic fields in dispersive homogeneous isotropic linear media. Usually, dispersive properties of materials are studied in Fourier space. However, it can be rewarding to consider these properties as causal functions of time. Due to temporal non locality, this procedure gives rise to an integrodifferential equation for the electromagnetic fields, which we also call a wave equation. We have not found this equation in the literature and we show in this paper why it can be useful.
Vector and scalar potential formulation is valid from quantum theory to classical electromagnetics. The rapid development in quantum optics calls for electromagnetic solutions that straddle quantum physics as well as classical physics. The vector potential formulation is a good candidate to bridge these two regimes. Hence, there is a need to generalize this formulation to inhomogeneous media. A generalized gauge is suggested for solving electromagnetic problems in inhomogenous media which can be extended to the anistropic case. The advantages of the resulting equations are their absence of low…
Following the arguments presented by Mansuripur [Opt. Express 16, 14821-14835 (2008)], we suggest a form for the macroscopic electromagnetic stress tensor appropriate for ionized media. The generalized Lorentz force includes the effects of polarization forces as well as those on the free charge and current densities. The resulting tensor is written in terms of the fields D, B, E, and H. Its expression for a fully ionized medium subject to an external electromagnetic field is discussed, as are the plasma conservation equations. An apparatus is suggested for its experimental discrimination.
In this manuscript we provide a fully geometric formulation for the induced electromagnetic fields and their corresponding constitutive relations in moving media. To this end, we present the reader with a brief geometric summary to show how vector calculus electromagnetic theory is embedded in the more general language of differential forms. Then, we consider the class of \emph{metric} constitutive relations describing the medium in which electromagnetic fields propagate. We explicitly obtain the components of the induced fields in a moving medium, as seen in the the lab \emph{rest} frame. Thi…
We analyse the propagation of electromagnetic waves in magnetoelectric media. Recently, Feigel has predicted that such a medium may ``extract momentum from vacuum" in the sense that the total momentum of the virtual waves (vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field) is nontrivial. Our aim is to check the feasibility of this effect. The crucial point in our study is an assumption of the finite size of the magnetoelectric sample, which allows us to reduce the calculation of the momenta and forces of the electromagnetic waves acting on the sample to the vacuum region outside of the medium. …
