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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Spectral and Angle-Resolved Magneto-Optical Characterization of Photonic Nanostructures
Published on: November 21, 2019
Negative refraction and left-handed electromagnetism in microwave photonic crystals
1Department of Physics and Electronic Materials Research Institute, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Abstract:
We demonstrate the negative refraction of microwaves in a metallic photonic crystal prism. The spectral response of the photonic crystal prism, which manifests both positive and negative refraction, is in complete agreement with band-structure calculations and numerical simulations. The validity of Snell's law with a negative refractive index is confirmed experimentally and theoretically. The negative refraction observed corresponds to left-handed electromagnetism that arises due to the dispersion characteristics of waves in a periodic medium. This mechanism for negative refraction is different from that in metamaterials.
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