Posted on Monday, September 3, 2007
Dr. Douglas Armstead, Westminster College assistant professor of physics, co-authored "Simulations of Ferrite-Dielectric-Wire Composite Negative Index Materials," which was published online in Physical Review of Letters.
Armstead completed much of the research while employed as a post-doctoral fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
Armstead explained, "The work was prompted by the discovery that it really is possible to make a material that has a negative index of refraction. Imagine you have a slab of material with a negative index of refraction in front of you and a laser on your left. Turn on the laser and imagine you can see waves of light emanating from the laser, moving through the air and hitting the slab of material. Nothing would seem to happen at first but slowly the light would start to pass into the material until eventually the light makes it out the other side and continues off to your right. The thing that is unusual about this material is that those waves that are traveling to the right outside of the material are traveling to the left inside the material.
"What makes negative index of refraction materials interesting is that they can be used to make lenses that are flat instead of curved. This makes the lens easier to form and to position. The material can also be used to make more compact antennae."
Armstead has been with Westminster since 2007. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (College Park).
Contact Armstead at (724) 946-7201 or e-mail armstedn@westminster.edu for additional information. Visit http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v99/e057202 for a copy of the article.
