Light Runs Backwards in Time

J.B. Pendry

Abstract:

How familiar and safe is the concept of a refractive index: wine glasses sparkle, deep pools appear shallow, camera lenses focus sharp images. ‘Ah yes, light bends towards

the surface normal - Snell's law’ and we move on to more interesting topics. My complacency was recently given a jolt by Sheldon Schultz and David Smith of UCSD

who reported at the recent American Physical Society meeting in Minneapolis that they had made a material with negative refractive index.

This paper is available as a PDF file.

last updated Weds 19 June12:18 BST 2002 by JBP