Resonant helicity mixing of electromagnetic waves propagating through matter

Dual scatterers preserve the helicity of an incident field, whereas antidual scatterers flip it completely. In this setting of linear electromagnetic scattering theory, we provide a completely general proof on the non-existence of passive antidual scatterers. However, we show that scatterers fulfill...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Lasa-Alonso, Jon, Olmos-Trigo, Jorge, Devescovi, Chiara, Hernández, Pilar, García-Etxarri, Aitzol, Molina-Terriza, Gabriel
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 06.02.2023
Subjects
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic scattering
Electromagnetism
Helicity
Impedance matching
Metamaterials
Particle physics
Refractivity
Wave propagation
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Summary:Dual scatterers preserve the helicity of an incident field, whereas antidual scatterers flip it completely. In this setting of linear electromagnetic scattering theory, we provide a completely general proof on the non-existence of passive antidual scatterers. However, we show that scatterers fulfilling the refractive index matching condition flip the helicity of the fields very efficiently without being in contradiction with the law of energy conservation. Moreover, we find that this condition is paired with the impedance matching condition in several contexts of electromagnetism and, in particular, within Fresnel's and Mie's scattering problems. Finally, we show that index-matched media induce a resonant helicity mixing on the propagating electromagnetic waves. We reach to this conclusion by identifying that the refractive index matching condition leads to the phenomenon of avoided level-crossing. Our contribution not only closes a historical discussion within the Nanophotonics community, but also opens up new possibilities in the fields of Metamaterials and Particle Physics.
ISSN:2331-8422