I actually did some rudimentary research on metamaterials over at Penn State University. A negative index of refraction does NOT mean that light travels faster in it than a vacuum; that formula breaks down for things like this. The true formula is the square root of the permittivity of the material multiplied by the permeability. Either or both of these characteristics can be negative,and depending on the coordinates of the result on the real and imaginary axes, the material will display various characteristics.
Still, this research is fairly dated. Boo, Engadget.
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Feep @ Dec 20th 2006 10:36PM
I actually did some rudimentary research on metamaterials over at Penn State University. A negative index of refraction does NOT mean that light travels faster in it than a vacuum; that formula breaks down for things like this. The true formula is the square root of the permittivity of the material multiplied by the permeability. Either or both of these characteristics can be negative,and depending on the coordinates of the result on the real and imaginary axes, the material will display various characteristics.
Still, this research is fairly dated. Boo, Engadget.