The orthogonal representation of wave propagation in magnetic crystals of triclinic and monoclinic systems is developed and generalized for mangetoelectrics. It is shown that, after introduction of principal velocities inversed to principal refraction indexes, Maxwell equations determine reciprocal tensors of velocities and indexes which depend linearly on directions and are similar to an angular momentum tensor. In the general case, when the non- reciprocity phenomenon takes place the 2nd order characteristic equations are obtained for determination of phase velocities instead of the 4th order equation. The two-dimensional representation of wave propagation is considered, it is established, that if gyrotropy takes place the introduced tensors are unitary ones. The simple expressions for dependence of ray (group) velocities, which directly define phase velocities and polarization of waves, on principal velocities in nongyrotropic crystals are adduced. Their generalization on purely and naturally gyrotropic crystals is discussed.

Date Published: 15 March 2001
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 4358, Optics of Crystals, (15 March 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.418878

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4358:
Optics of Crystals
Vasiliy V. Shepelevich; N. N. Egorov, Editor(s)