Materials with a desired refraction coefficient can be made by embedding small particles

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to engineer materials with specific refraction properties, including negative values, by embedding a calculated distribution of small particles into an existing material.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach for designing materials with desired refraction coefficients through the strategic embedding of small particles.

Findings

Method allows creation of materials with custom refraction coefficients.

Calculation of particle distribution needed for desired refraction.

Applicable to materials with negative refraction coefficients.

Abstract

A method is proposed to create materials with a desired refraction coefficient, possibly negative one. The method consists of embedding into a given material small particles. Given $n_0(x)$, the refraction coefficient of the original material in a bounded domain $D \subset \R^3$, and a desired refraction coefficient $n(x)$, one calculates the number $N(x)$ of small particles, to be embedded in $D$ around a point $x \in D$ per unit volume of $D$, in order that the resulting new material has refraction coefficient $n(x)$.