Wednesday, May 29, 2019

electromagnetism - Are there any real-world examples of refraction of light by magnetic permeability?


The question Fresnel Transmission Coefficient for Magnetic Field is interesting.


Thinking about it led me to reflect upon what little I know of the history of optics, with refraction by lenses and prisms being expressed in terms of an index of refraction, which at lower frequencies (microwaves) was related to the dielectric polarizability.


Today in optics texts it's usually the electric field amplitude rather than the magnetic field amplitude that's calculated, though we could just as well use either one with the proper conversions.


This led me to wonder Are there real-world examples of refraction due to magnetic permeability?


You can't focus light with an iron lens because it's opaque and possibly wouldn't have much permeability at such a high frequency. You might be able to make a microwave lens out of ferrite or some other low-loss medium, but for the purposes of this question only I won't call microwaves "light".


Question: In the wavelength range of IR (say about 10 microns or shorter) to near-UV (say about 100 nm or longer) are there any practical examples or demonstrations of refraction by the magnetic permeability of a material?





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