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Negative radiation pressure and negative effective refractive index via dielectric birefringence
Jonathan Nemirovsky1, Mikael C Rechtsman, Mordechai Segev
1Physics Department, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Abstract:
We show that light guided in a planar dielectric slab geometry incorporating a biaxial medium has lossless modes with group and phase velocities in opposite directions. Particles in a vacuum gap inserted into the structure experience negative radiation pressure: the particles are pulled by light rather than pushed by it. This effectively one-dimensional dielectric structure represents a new geometry for achieving negative radiation pressure in a wide range of frequencies with minimal loss. Moreover, this geometry provides a straightforward platform for experimentally resolving the Abrahams-Minkowski dilemma.
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