Negative Refraction Gives Rise to the Klein Paradox

TL;DR

This paper explores how metamaterials exhibiting negative refraction can simulate relativistic quantum phenomena like the Klein paradox, bridging concepts between optics and quantum physics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analogy between negative refraction in metamaterials and the Klein paradox in relativistic quantum mechanics.

Findings

Metamaterials can simulate relativistic wave phenomena.

Negative refraction relates to Klein paradox behavior.

Potential applications in advanced imaging and antenna design.

Abstract

Electromagnetic negative refraction in metamaterials has attracted increasingly great interest, since its first experimental verification in 2001. It potentially leads to the applications superior to conventional devices including compact antennas for mobile stations, imaging beyond the diffraction limit, and high-resolution radars, not to mention the anamolous wave propagation in fundamental optics. Here, we report how metamaterials could be used to simulate the "negative refraction of spin-zero particles interacting with a strong potential barrier", which gives rise to the Klein paradox--a counterintuitive relativistic process. We address the underlying physics of analogous wave propagation behaviours in those two entirely different domains of quantum and classical.