Anomalous Electromagnetic Tunneling in Bianisotropic ϵ-µ-Zero Media.

ABSTRACT

Quantum tunneling, one of the most celebrated effects arising from the wave nature of matter, describes the partial penetration of an incident propagating wave through a potential barrier in the form of an evanescent field that exponentially decays from the incident interface. A similar tunneling effect has also been observed in classical systems, such as the frustrated total internal reflection. Here we reveal an unexplored form of tunneling for electromagnetic waves which features opposite behaviors for the electric and magnetic fields, with one turning into a growing field, and the other a decaying field, in a medium that exhibits both ϵ-µ-zero and bianisotropy. Our Letter provides a new mechanism for manipulating electromagnetic waves for novel device applications.