Electromagnetic fields and boundary conditions at the interface of generalized transformation media

TL;DR

This paper investigates electromagnetic boundary conditions at interfaces between transformation media and vacuum, extending transformation optics to generalized media and providing a geometric understanding of reflection and refraction.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized transformation optics framework for analyzing interfaces between arbitrary media, including reflectionless cases and standard optical laws.

Findings

Analysis of reflectionless interfaces using transformation optics

Extension of transformation optics to generalized media

Geometric interpretation of reflection and refraction laws

Abstract

In this paper the interface between two transformation media or between a transformation medium and vacuum is studied. Strictly from the transformation optics point of view the consequences of the boundary conditions at such interfaces are addressed in two different ways. First, we analyze a restricted class of reflectionless interfaces, for which the tools of transformation optics allow to describe the electromagnetic fields on both sides of the interface by means of the same vacuum solution of the Maxwell equations. In a second step, we examine interfaces between two arbitrary transformation media. This analysis is extended to the recently suggested generalization of transformation optics by the author. As a basic application it is shown how the standard law of reflection and refraction at an interface between vacuum and a homogeneous and isotropic medium with arbitrary and independent permittivity and permeability can be understood in a completely geometric way by the use of generalized transformation optics.