Metric Signature Transitions in Optical Metamaterials

Abstract

PACS numbers: 78.20.Ci, 42.25.Bs, 71.36.+c, The unprecedented degree of control of the local dielectric permittivity ε ik and magnetic permeability μ ik tensors in electromagnetic metamaterials has fueled recent explosion in novel device ideas, and resulted in discovery of new physical phenomena. Advances in experimental design and theoretical understanding of metamaterials greatly benefited from the field theoretical ideas developed to describe physics in curvilinear space-time. Theoretical investigation of the 2T higher dimensional space-time models had been pioneered by Paul Dirac [12]. More recent examples can be found in [13,14]. Metric signature change events (in which a phase transition occurs between say (-,+,+,+) and (-,-,+,+) space-time signature) are being studied in Bose-Einstein condensates and in some modified gravitation theories (see ref. [15], and the references therein). In general, it is predicted that a quantum field theory residing on a spacetime undergoing a signature change reacts violently to the imposition of the signature change. Both the total number and the total energy of the particles generated in a signature change event are formally infinite [15]. Therefore, such a metric signature transition can be called a "Big Flash", which shares some similarities with the cosmological "Big Bang". A metamaterial model of a metric signature change event should be extremely interesting to observe. Unlike usual phase transitions, in which the physical system changes while the background metric is intact, the signature change transition affects the underlying background metric experienced by the system. Therefore, signature change events

Angular and positional dependence of Purcell effect for layered metal-dielectric structures

“…First at the frequency, when the condition Real( ( 1 ))=Imag( ( 1 )), for chosen dielectric function is fulfilled, 1 is indicated by white dashed lines in figure 2. Volume modes primarily exhibit for frequencies higher than 1 , in the range of lower frequencies Langmuir waves propagate. Second maximum located at frequency 2 , where dispersion curve of the first volume mode, which also owns properties of antisymmetric surface mode [13], intersect with dispersion of the light cone.…”

“…Such structures are also classified as one-dimensional photon crystals, are generally known as a simple realization of the metamaterials [1]. Metamaterials have attracted great scientific interest over the past decade due to their special optical properties emanating primarily while operating in hyperbolic regime.…”

Metamaterial Model of Tachyonic Dark Energy

“…In particular, hyperbolic metamaterials (see Figure 1) offer an interesting experimental window into physics of Minkowski spacetimes, since propagation of extraordinary light inside a hyperbolic metamaterial is described by wave equation exhibiting 2 + 1 dimensional Lorentz symmetry. A detailed derivation of this result can be found in [9,10]. Assuming that the metamaterial in question is uniaxial and non-magnetic, electromagnetic field inside the metamaterial may be separated into ordinary and extraordinary waves: vector E  of the extraordinary light wave is parallel to the plane defined by the k-vector of the wave and the optical axis of the metamaterial.…”

“…In the frequency domain (in some frequency band around ω = ω 0 ) the metamaterial may be described by anisotropic dielectric tensor having opposite signs of the diagonal components ε xx = ε yy = ε 1 and ε zz = ε 2 , while all the non-diagonal components are assumed to be zero in the linear optics limit. Propagation of extraordinary light in such a metamaterial may be described by a coordinate-dependent wave function φ ω = E z obeying the following wave equation [9,10]:…”

Extremely Sub-Wavelength Negative Index Metamaterial

“…Any material composed of usually periodic subwavelength structures to achieve a desired electromagnetic response that cannot be found in nature can be referred to as a metamaterial. Metamaterials offer a plethora of applications, such as flat lens [3], perfect lens [4], hyperlens [5][6][7][8], transformation optics [9][10][11], perfect absorbers [12,13], optical analogue simulators [14,15], compact antennas [16,17], solar photovoltaics [18], and metaspacers [19], among others. Particularly, negative refractive index or double negative metamaterials [20][21][22][23][24][25] have been emerged as one of the most interesting classes of metamaterials due to the possibility of along-awaited diffraction unlimited imaging [4].…”