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538.30
V. G. VESELAGO
P . N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.
Usp. Fiz. Nauk 92, 517-526 (July, 1964)
509
510 V . G. V E S E L A G O
b)
FIG. 4. Passage of rays of light through a plate of thickness d FIG. 6. Reflection of a ray propagated in a medium with ( < 0
made of a left-handed substance. A — source of radiation; B — de- and fi < 0 from an ideally reflecting body. The source of radiation
tector of radiation. is denoted by a heavy black point.
512 V. G. VESELAGO
Let us now go on to anisotropic substances. In this
case the quantities e and M are tensors, and we can-
not make use at once of a diagram like Fig. 7. In
some substances, however, we can do this for waves
propagated in particular directions. Gyrotropic sub-
stances are especially interesting in this respect.
For gyrotropic substances the tensors e^ and
are of the forms
FIG. 7. e — fi diagram.
El ie2 0s
M te2 «i 0 (17)
0 0 e3/
Hi *H2 0
A monochromatic wave in a left-handed medium i\i2 Hi 0 (18)
can be regarded as a stream of photons, each having 0 0 H3
a momentum p = hk, with the vector k directed A well known example of a gyrotropic substance is a
toward the source of radiation, not away from it as plasma in a magnetic field, which is characterized
is the case in a right-handed medium. Therefore a by a tensor e ^ of the form (17) and a scalar value
beam of light propagated in a left-handed medium and of M- H a plane circularly polarized transverse wave
incident on a reflecting body imparts to it a momen- of the form e^z - wt) j s propagated in such a plasma,
tum p = 2Nhk (N is the number of incident photons) with k II z II Ho, then n2 is given by
directed toward the source of the radiation, as shown
in Fig. 6. Owing to this the light pressure character- ±e 2 ). (19)
istic for ordinary (right-handed) substances is r e -
The sign ± corresponds to the two directions of
placed in left-handed substances by a light tension
polarization of the wave. If | e21 < I £ i I and e t > 0,
or attraction.
two waves can be propagated in the plasma, but if
These are some of the features of the electrody- I €21 > I e i I = - £ i i then o n ly oae wave is propagated,
namics of left-handed substances. Let us now con- that for which n2 > 0. In these cases the plasma must
sider the question of their physical realization. For be placed in the first quadrant of Fig. 7 (/i is of the
this purpose we first examine what the values of e order of 1). As for the second wave in the case | e21
and n are that various substances may have. > I ei I = - e l f it cannot be propagated because for it
e < 0, which by (19) leads to an imaginary value of
IV. WHAT SORT OF VALUES OF e AND n ARE IN n. In this case the plasma belongs in the second
PRINCIPLE POSSIBLE? quadrant in Fig. 7.
Figure 7 shows a coordinate system in which Another example of gyrotropic substances is
values of e and n are marked off on the axes. We various magnetic materials, in which, in contrast to
shall try to locate in it all known substances, at first the plasma, it is /x and not e that is a tensor. For
confining ourselves to the case in which e and M are these materials the analog of (19) is
isotropic. Then the first quadrant contains the
majority of isotropic dielectrics, for which e and /x re2 = e(n, ± (20)
a r e positive. In the second quadrant (e < 0, M > 0) Here also there can in principle be a situation in
there will be plasmas, both gaseous plasmas [6] and which I n21 > l^i I = -Mi, and this case corresponds
solid-state plasmas. [7 ~ 9 -' In a plasma with no mag- to the fourth quadrant in Fig. 7.
netic field the value of e is given by Quite recently there have begun to be intensive
studies of gyrotropic substances in which both e and
^ are tens or s.'-10"15-' Examples of such substances are
where OJ2 = 47rNe2/m, N being the concentration of pure ferromagnetic metals and semiconductors. For
the carriers, e their charge, and m their mass, and such substances the index of refraction of a circu-
the summation is over all types of c a r r i e r s . It is not larly polarized wave travelling along the field is
hard to see that at small frequencies e is smaller given by
than zero. For e > 0 and n > 0 the value of n2 given
w2 = (e, ± E 2 ) ( H I ± (21)
by (3) is negative, which leads to reflection of waves
from such a medium. This fact is well confirmed by and it is easy to see that in this case the effective
experiment, for example, in the ionosphere. electric and magnetic permeabilities can both be less
The third and fourth quadrants in Fig. 7 are un- than zero, while n2 remains positive and the wave
occupied. So far there is not a single substance known will be propagated.t 3 - 13 ' 1 ^ Such substances occupy the
with ji< 0. A s w e shall see in what follows, this is third and last quadrant of Fig. 7. Accordingly we see
not accidental. that we must look for substances with e < 0 and
E L E C T R O D Y N A M I C S O F S U B S T A N C E S WITH N E G A T I V E e AND 513
H < 0 primarily among gyrotropic media. Further- provide a large magnetic susceptibility. This assures
m o r e it is obvious thta negative values of e and M in the simultaneous propagation of s p i n a n d plasma
gyrotropic substances can be realized only for those waves, and naturally there is an interaction between
waves that a r e p r o p a g a t e d along the m a g n e t i c field. them. If t h i s interaction is strong enough, the waves
F o r other directions of p r o p a g a t i o n e and M can no propagated in s u c h a s u b s t a n c e are of a m i x e d , spin-
longer be regarded as scalars. Nevertheless, for a plasma, character. In this case the values of e and
[ 1 5 j
certain range of angles between H and k the vectors M are of the f o l l o w i n g form :
S and k will make an angle close to 180° and will
(28)
qualitatively satisfy all of the laws which are charac- ± Q) 1 - Q ' ± CO '
teristic for left-handed substances.
n* = e\x. (29)
In c o n c l u d i n g this section w e note that simultane-
2
ous negative values of e and n can be realized only Here u> is the frequency, u \ = 47rNe /m is the square
when there is frequency dispersion. In fact, it c a n be of the p l a s m a frequency, N is the concentration and
These inequalities do not in general m e a n that e and ferromagnetic substances there are in the first place
H cannot be simultaneously negative, but for t h e m to ferromagnetic metals, for example nickel. There is
1 8
h o l d it i s n e c e s s a r y that e and n depend on the fre- already a communication^ -' on the observation of
It i s a p p r o p r i a t e to e m p h a s i z e here that the con- clear just what w e r e the values of e and n in this
clusion that there is a light attraction in left-handed case, and in particular w h e t h e r or not they were
substances, which was obtained at the end of Sec. Ill negative. As for semiconductors which have magnetic
from quantum arguments, can also be obtained in a properties, several such compounds have recently
[19
purely classical way. To do this w e must use the been indicated, "21] in particular CuFeS2, UTe2,
classical expression for the m o m e n t u m o f t h e f i e l d '- -' 17 InSb-FeSb, and others. At p r e s e n t the m o b i l i t y of the
carriers in these m a t e r i a l s is still v e r y small, and
does not allow the observation of w e a k l y damped waves
the relations (23) and (24), and also the connection in them. Constant technological progress gives the
between the Poynting vector S and the group velocity hope, however, that such m a t e r i a l s with good mobility
kind that, first, they contain sufficiently mobile car- it w o u l d b e v e r y desirable to have an isotropic left-
riers forming an electron-hole plasma, and, second, handed substance. Unfortunately, as has already been
that there exists a system of interacting spins which said, w e do not know of e v e n a single substance which
514 V . G. V E S E L A G O
2
A. V. Sokolov, Opticheskie svoistva metallov
(The Optical Properties of Metals), Moscow, Fizmat-
giz, 1961.
3
V. E. Pafomov, JETP 36, 1853 (1959), Soviet
Phys. J E T P 9, 1321 (1959).
4
FIG. 8. Passage of a ray through a sphere with e < 0 and fi < 0 V. M. Agranovich and V. L. Ginzburg, Kristal-
situated in vacuum. The source of radiation is indicated with a looptika c uchetom prostranstvennoi dispersii i
heavy black point. teoriya eksitonov (Spatial Dispersion Effects in
Crystal Optics and the Theory of Excitons), Moscow,
Nauka, 1965.
could be isotropic and have n < 0. This is true be- 5
L . I. MandePstam, JETP 15, 475 (1945).
cause the sources of magnetic field are not charges, 6
V. L. Ginzburg, Rasprostranenie elektromag-
but dipoles. If the magnetic field, like the electric
nitnykh voln v plazme (The Propagation of Electro-
field, could arise from charges, a gas of such
magnetic Waves in Plasma), Moscow, Fizmatgiz,
charges would have a magnetic permeability given,
1960.
in analogy with (16), by the formula 7
E . A. Kaner and V. G. Skobov, UFN 89, 367 (1966),
H==l--^-. (30) Soviet Phys. Uspekhi 9, 480 (1967).
8
2 V. G. Veselago, N. V. Glushkov, and A. M. Prok-
Here ct)^ = 1 — 47rNg /mi, where Nj is the concen-
horov, Radiotekhnika i elektronika (1967).
tration of the charges, gj is their magnitude, and mj 9
A. G. Chynoweth and S. J. Buchsbaum, Physics
their m a s s . The hypothesis of the existence of such
Today, No. 11, 26 (1965).
charges was stated by Dirac as early as 1931 '-22-1; 10
E. A. Stern and E. R. Callen, Phys. Rev. 131, 512
there have been many papers on the possible proper-
(1963).
ties of this charge (the Dirac monopole), for example 11
H. N. Spector and T. N. Casselman, Phys. Rev.
a review article, [ 2 3 ] and also1-24"26-1. So far, however,
139, A1594 (1965).
attempts to observe it have given no result. [23 " 27:1 If 12
A. Ya. Blank, JETP 47, 325 (1964), Soviet Phys.
the monopole were found, then a mixture of ordinary
JETP 20, 216 (1965).
plasma and a gas of monopoles would have a value of 13
/x given by (30), and the it of the mixture would be A. Ya. Blank and M. I. Kaganov, JETP 49, 807
given by (1965), Soviet Phys. J E T P 22, 561 (1966).
14
V. G. Bar'yakhtar, E. G. Rudashevskii, M. A.
e - 1 - ^ . (31) Savchenko, and K. N. Stepanov, J E T P 51, 250 (1966),
Soviet Phys. JETP 24, 167 (1957).
At sufficiently low frequencies such a mixture would 15
V. G. Veselago and E. G. Rudashevskii, FTT 8,
be a left-handed isotropic substance.
2862 (1966), Soviet Phys. Solid State 8, 2290 (1967).
Let us imagine [28-' that such a mixture uniformly 16
M. A. Ginsburg, DAN SSSR 95, 753 (1954).
fills a sufficiently large spherical region in space, 17
S. M. Rytov, J E T P 17, 930 (1947).
and that outside this region there is vacuum. For 18
G. G. Grimes, Plasma Effects in Solids, Paris,
simplicity suppose that inside the sphere UJJ = u>o,
1964, p. 87.
and that radiation is incident from outside the sphere 19
at a frequency such that inside the sphere e = /x = —1. T. Teranishi, J. Phys. Soc. Japan 17, 5263 (1962).
20
Then there will be no refraction of an incident ray at L. K. Matson, J. W. Moody, and R. C. Himes,
the points where it enters and leaves the sphere. At J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem. 25, 795 (1963).
21
the same time there will be imparted to the sphere A. Muller and W. Wilhelm, J. Phys. Chem. Solids
at each of these points a momentum directed toward 26, 2021 (1965).
22
its center, as is shown in Fig. 8. If we imagine that P . A. M. Dirac, Proc. Roy. Soc. A133, 60 (1931).
23S. Devons, Sci. Progr. 51 (204), 601 (1963).
the sphere is irradiated from all sides, then it will
24B. i M. Bolotovskii and V. S. Voronin, Izv. vuzov
experience an isotropic compression. Accordingly,
if Dirac monopoles were uniformly distributed in (radiofizika) 5, 1033 (1962).
25
space together with an ionized gas, under the influ- A. A. Kolomenskii, Vestn. MGU (Moscow State
ence of radiation this mixture would be continuously Univ.) 3, No. 6 (1962).
26
concentrated in certain local regions. This argument N. N. Okulov, Geomagnetizm i aeronomiya 4, 1002
is of course very approximate, and does not take into (1964).
27
account many other factors, but it may possibly help V. A. Petukhov and M. N. Yakimenko, Nuclear
Phys. 49, 87 (1963).
to explain the lack of success in the experimental 28
G. V. Veselago, J E T P 52, 1025 (1967), Soviet
observation of Dirac monopoles.
Phys. J E T P 25, (1967).