Formulating Fermat's principle for light traveling in negative refraction materials

V.G. Veselago^a, b
^aProkhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Vavilova 38, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
^bMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), Institutskii per. 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, 141701, Russian Federation

The formulation of Fermat’s principle for electromagnetic waves traveling in materials with a negative refractive index is refined. It is shown that a formulation in terms of the minimum (or extremum) of wave travel time between two points is not correct in general. The correct formulation involves the extremum of the total optical length, with the optical length for the wave propagation through left-handed materials taken to be negative.

PACS: 42.15.−i, 42.79.Bh, 78.20.Ci (all)
DOI: 10.1070/PU2002v045n10ABEH001223
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2002/10/e/
Web of Science

000181011300005
Citation: Veselago V G "Formulating Fermat's principle for light traveling in negative refraction materials" Phys. Usp. 45 1097–1099 (2002)

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Оригинал: Веселаго В Г «О формулировке принципа Ферма для света, распространяющегося в веществах с отрицательным преломлением» УФН 172 1215–1218 (2002); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0172.200210e.1215