Negative Refraction in Perspective

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of negative refraction, clarifying misconceptions, exploring properties of media supporting backward waves, and illustrating concepts with original FDTD simulations.

Contribution

It offers a detailed conceptual and historical analysis of negative refraction, including new numerical simulations and insights into related media properties.

Findings

Negative refraction is linked to backward and forward wave phenomena.

Media supporting backward waves exhibit unique properties relevant to negative refraction.

Original FDTD simulations demonstrate key behaviors of negative refraction phenomena.

Abstract

The concept of negative refraction is attracting a lot of attention. The initial ideas and the misconceptions that have arisen are discussed in sufficient detail to understand the conceptual structure that binds negative refraction to the existence of backward wave and forward wave phenomena. A presentation of the properties of isotropic media supporting backward waves is followed by a discussion of negative phase velocity media, causality, anisotropic crystals and some connections to photonic crystals. The historical background is always coupled to a detailed presentation of all the issues. The paper is driven numerically and is illustrated with the outcomes of original FDTD simulations.