What are the left-handed media and what is interesting about them?

We review the intensively discussed ideas about wave propagation and refraction in media where both electric permittivity and magnetic permeability are negative. The criticism against negative refraction as violating the causality principle is considered. Starting from the initial wave equations, refraction of beams at the boundary of a left-handed medium is analyzed. The physics of a perfect lens formed by a flat layer of a left-handed material is considered.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Localization of transverse waves in randomly layered media at oblique incidence

We investigate the oblique incidence of transverse waves on a randomly layered medium in the limit of strong disorder. An approximate method for calculating the inverse localization length based on the assumptions of zero energy flux and complete phase stochastization is presented. Two effects not found at normal incidence have been studied: dependence of the localization length on the polarization, and decrease of the localization length due to the internal reflections from layers with small refractive indexes. The inverse localization length (attenuation rate) for P-polarized radiation is shown to be always smaller than that of S-waves, which is to say that long enough randomly layered sample polarizes transmitted radiation. The localization length for P-polarization depends non-monotonically on the angle of propagation, and under certain conditions turns to infinity at some angle, which means that typical (non-resonant) random realizations become transparent at this angle of incidence (stochastic Brewster effect).Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Resonances in 1D disordered systems: localization of energy and resonant transmission

Localized states in one-dimensional open disordered systems and their connection to the internal structure of random samples have been studied. It is shown that the localization of energy and anomalously high transmission associated with these states are due to the existence inside the sample of a transparent (for a given resonant frequency) segment with the minimal size of order of the localization length. A mapping of the stochastic scattering problem in hand onto a deterministic quantum problem is developed. It is shown that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the localization and high transparency: only small part of localized modes provides the transmission coefficient close to one. The maximal transmission is provided by the modes that are localized in the center, while the highest energy concentration takes place in cavities shifted towards the input. An algorithm is proposed to estimate the position of an effective resonant cavity and its pumping rate by measuring the resonant transmission coefficient. The validity of the analytical results have been checked by extensive numerical simulations and wavelet analysis