Fermat's principle with complex refractive indices and local light-ray rotation

Sundar, Bhuvanesh; Hamilton, Alasdair C.; Courtial, Johannes

Fermat's principle with complex refractive indices and local light-ray rotation

Authors

Sundar, Bhuvanesh

Hamilton, Alasdair C.

Courtial, Johannes

Description

We describe local light-ray rotation in terms of complex refractive indices. We show that Fermat's principle holds, and we derive an extended Snell's law. The change in the angle of a light ray with respect to the normal to a refractive-index interface is described by the modulus of the refractive-index ratio, the rotation around the interface normal is described by the argument of the refractive-index ratio.
3 pages, 2 figures