No Causal Negative Signal Refraction
Our paper in Physical Review Letters V. 88, 18, p. 187401 May 6 2000, proves that, contrary to prevalent belief, media with negative phase refractive index (see top fig. on left) do not lead to negative refraction of wave signals or energy (see bottom fig. on left).
- We show that negative refarction of any physical wave signal (i.e., a wave of non-zero frequency width) would violate two basic laws of physics - that no signal can travel faster than light, and that causality must be obeyed.
- Our basic argument negates all other LHM papers and potential applications (pefrect lens included) because they are all based on the presumed validity of negative wave refraction.
- Wave dispersion is always critical when dealing with NIMs. One must not use strictly monochromatic waves to approximate even slowly varying modulated waves because this approximation is always wrong in NIM. Since this goes contrary to everyone's familiarity with using monochromatic waves for PIMs, this is an important lesson.
- In order to avoid confusion with circular polarizing left-handed (chiral) media, which have been known from the time of Louis Pasteur.
- LHM are in fact symmetric under reflection, so they are neither left-handed nor right handed media.
- The original use of LHM was to denote that the electromagnetic fields and propagation vectors of a wave form a left-handed system in these media. However, the physically meaningful Poynting vector is still right-handed.
