Negative refraction and backward wave in pseudochiral mediums: illustrations of Gaussian beams.

We investigate the phenomena of negative refraction and backward wave in pseudochiral mediums, with illustrations of Gaussian beams. Due to symmetry breaking intrinsic in pseudochiral mediums, there exist two elliptically polarized eigenwaves with different wave vectors. As the chirality parameter increases from zero, the two waves begin to split from each other. For a wave incident from vacuum onto a pseudochiral medium, negative refraction may occur for the right-handed wave, whereas backward wave may appear for the left-handed wave. These features are illustrated with Gaussian beams based on Fourier integral formulations for the incident, reflected, and transmitted waves. Negative refraction and backward wave are manifest, respectively, on the energy flow in space and wavefront movement in time.