Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Fabrication Procedures and Birefringence Measurements for Designing Magnetically Responsive Lanthanide Ion Chelating Phospholipid Assemblies
Published on: January 3, 2018
Measurements of the negative refractive index of sub-diffraction waves propagating in an indefinite permittivity
Dmitriy Korobkin1, Burton Neuner, Chris Fietz
1University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Abstract:
An indefinite permittivity medium (IPM) has been fabricated and optically characterized in mid-infrared spectral range (10.7 µm-11.3 µm). Phase and amplitude transmission measurements reveal two remarkable properties of IPMs: (i) transmission of sub-diffraction waves (as short as λ/4) can exceed those of diffraction-limited ones, and (ii) sub-diffraction waves can propagate with negative refractive index. We describe a novel double-detector optical technique relying on the interference between sub-diffraction and diffraction-limited waves for accurate measurement of the transmission amplitude and phase of the former.
Related Concept Videos
Interference and Diffraction
Electromagnetic Waves in Matter
Consider the electromagnetic wave passing through a dielectric medium. In such a case, Maxwell's equations get modified. In Ampere's law, ε0 , the dielectric permittivity of free space is replaced with ε, the permittivity of dielectric. Also, the vacuum permeability μ0 is replaced by the permeability of the medium, μ.
Furthermore, the...
Propagation of Waves
Consider a scenario where a wave propagates from a string of low linear mass density to a string of high linear mass density. In such a case, the reflected wave is out of phase with respect to the incident wave, however the...
Susceptibility, Permittivity and Dielectric Constant
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions
Law of Rational Indices

