Brewster angle with a negative-index material.

The demonstration and confirmation of metamaterials with simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability, and thus a negative refractive index, has resulted in a surge of interest in the reflection and refraction phenomena at the interfaces of these so-called negative-index materials (NIMs). We present a systematic study of the Brewster angle, i.e., the angle of incidence at which no reflection occurs, for both TE and TM waves scattering at the interface between two semi-infinite planar media, one of which may be a NIM. Detailed physical explanations that account for the Brewster angle for a plane wave incident upon a NIM are provided under the framework of the Ewald-Oseen extinction theorem, considering the reemission of induced electric and magnetic dipoles. The conditions under which the Brewster angle exists are concisely summarized in a map of different material parameter regimes.