Transmission study of prisms and slabs of lossy negative index media

Within an effective medium theory, we numerically study by means of a finite element method the transmission properties of prisms and slabs of media with negative refractive index. The constitutive parameters employed are similar to those of recent experiments that confirmed the existence of negative refraction as well as the focusing property of flat slabs. In this way, we further analyze in detail the influence of diffraction and scattering due to the large wavelength of the radiation in use, and its suppression by employing waveguide configurations with absorbing walls. Also, we address the effects of different amounts of absorption on both the angle of refraction, (for which we derive a new refraction law in prisms), and on the position, resolution and isoplantism of the focus produced by flat slabs. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.