Electromagnetic wave propagation in metamaterials: A visual guide to Fresnel-Kummer surfaces and their singular points

摘要

The propagation of light through bianisotropic materials is studied in the geometrical optics approximation. For that purpose, we use the quartic general dispersion equation specified by the Tamm-Rubilar tensor, which is cubic in the electromagnetic response tensor of the medium. A collection of different and remarkable Fresnel (wave) surfaces is gathered, and unified via the projective geometry of Kummer surfaces.