Inversion of critical angle and Brewster angle in anisotropic left-handed metamaterials

We study the inversion of critical angle when a wave propagates through an anisotropic and a bianisotropic metamaterial exhibiting negative permittivity and negative permeability along some specific directions. This inversion of critical angle is explained by the dispersion relation of the medium, which shows that waves are totally reflected for low incident angles and transmitted for high incident angles. In addition, analytical formulae for the loci of the Brewster angles are derived for both half-space and slabs of both anisotropic and bianisotropic media, where the bianisotropy is the one exhibited by some split-ring resonators. Experimental results are provided and corroborate the theoretical predictions. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.