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Published on: September 26, 2014
Generalized laws of refraction that can lead to wave-optically forbidden light-ray fields
1SUPA, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. johannes.courtial@glasgow.ac.uk
Abstract:
The recent demonstration of a metamaterial phase hologram so thin that it can be classified as an interface in the effective-medium approximation [Science 334, 333 (2011)] has dramatically increased interest in generalized laws of refraction. Based on the fact that scalar wave optics allows only certain light-ray fields, we divide generalized laws of refraction into two categories. When applied to a planar cross section through any allowed light-ray field, the laws in the first category always result in a cross section through an allowed light-ray field again, whereas the laws in the second category can result in a cross section through a forbidden light-ray field.
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