Transmission of evanescent wave modes through a slab of negative-refractive-index material

Abstract

There has been a long-standing argument about Pendry's suggestion that a plane harmonic evanescent (surface) wave along the interface between free space and a slab of epsilon = -1, mu = -1 double-negative (DNG) medium will emerge on the far side with recovery of phase and amplitude. While this is possible, it is subject to parameter restrictions. This work generalizes previous work and now gives analytical criteria for when to expect such a recovery in a Smith-Kroll DNG medium. Basically this requires, among other things, a relatively narrow bandwidth and relatively small transverse-mode component. There also is a very strong dependence on the ratio of slabwidth to plasma wavelength.