The Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Joint Physical Society of the Russian Federation held a joint session on backward waves in the conference room of the Lebedev Physics Institute, RAS, on 25 January 2006. The following reports were presented at the session:
1. Veselago V G (Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Prokhorov Institute of General Physics, RAS). ’Negative refraction and backward waves’;
2. Vashkovsky A V, Lock E H (Institute of Radio-Electronics, Fryazino, Moscow region). ’Forward and backward noncollinear waves in magnetic films’;
3. Silin R A (FGUP ’NPP Istok’). ’Electromagnetic waves in artificial periodic structures.’
Below are brief summaries of the last two contributions. The key points of Veselago’s talk can be found in Usp. Fiz. Nauk 172 1215 (2002) [Phys. Usp. 45 1097 (2002)].