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Tom G. Mackay Reader School of Mathematics University of Edinburgh James Clerk Maxwell Building King's Buildings Edinburgh EH9 3JZ
tel: +44 (0)131 650 5058 |
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Research
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Sculptured thin films
A chiral sculptured thin film (CSTF) comprises a collection of parallel spiral columns, grown on a substrate by physical vapour deposition. The spiral column microstructure endows CSTFs with polarization-dependent optical properties; i.e., if the spiral columns are right handed then mostly left circularly polarized light is transmitted through the CSTF but not right circularly polarized light, and vice versa.-
CSTFs as optical emitters
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CSTFs as optical sensors
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Negative phase velocity and negative refraction
A range of exotic and potentially useful phenomenons, such as negative refraction, inverse Doppler effect and inverse Cerenkov radiation, are associated with the propagation of electromagnetic plane waves with negative phase velocity (NPV). While much research to date has been directed towards NPV propagation in metamaterials, recent theoretical results suggest interesting possibilities in astronomical scenarios.
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NPV and negative refraction
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NPV and homogenized composite mediums
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NPV induced by uniform motion
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NPV induced by gravity
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Homogenization
A composite medium may viewed as an effectively homogeneous medium provided that wavelengths are sufficiently large. Significantly, such homogenized composite mediums may exhibit properties not exhibited by their components.
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Homogenization via the strong-property-fluctuation theory
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A limitation of homogenization formalisms
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Group velocity enhancement through homogenization
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Nonlinearity enhancement through homogenization
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Voigt wave propagation in a homogenized composite medium
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Publications
Links
(Updated: 15-10-11)