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Is a right-handed negative refracting material possible ? |
F. Brechtefeld, K. Mantel
Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Universität Erlangen
fbrechtefeld@optik.uni-erlangen.de |
The notions left-handedness and negative refraction are closely related because every left-handed material should show negative refraction. However, there exist no left-handed materials in nature and artificially produced left-handed materials, which exist up to now only for microwaves, suffer from several limitations. Therefore, we investigate under which circumstances a right-handed material refracts negatively. Conditions for the dispersion relation and the dielectric function of a right-handed negative refracting material are derived. It is checked whether these conditions are compatible with the Kramers-Kronig relations. Thereby, it turns out that the conditions can only be fulfilled in an active medium.
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Keywords:
Theoretical Foundations, Optical Materials |
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