Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’
Based on their finding that the circularly polarized Beltrami fields are solutions to their eigenvalue equation (7), the authors of preceding Comment claim that the linearly polarized basis is inapplicable to light waves in an isotropic chiral medium. We show that the analysis is flawed. The reason...
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| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | New Journal of Physics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ad9ac6 |
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| _version_ | 1850061087392661504 |
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| author | Zhi-Juan Hu Chun-Fang Li |
| author_facet | Zhi-Juan Hu Chun-Fang Li |
| author_sort | Zhi-Juan Hu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Based on their finding that the circularly polarized Beltrami fields are solutions to their eigenvalue equation (7), the authors of preceding Comment claim that the linearly polarized basis is inapplicable to light waves in an isotropic chiral medium. We show that the analysis is flawed. The reason is twofold. Firstly, we prove that the Beltrami fields are, by definition, not a polarization basis for both the electric and magnetic fields of light waves in the chiral medium. Secondly, we demonstrate that linearly polarized and circularly polarized waves in the chiral medium are on the same footing if the electric and magnetic fields, rather than the Beltrami fields, are considered. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8e0e906ff04f4ccd9d9482a7853b6565 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1367-2630 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | New Journal of Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-8e0e906ff04f4ccd9d9482a7853b65652025-08-20T02:50:22ZengIOP PublishingNew Journal of Physics1367-26302024-01-01261212800210.1088/1367-2630/ad9ac6Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’Zhi-Juan Hu0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4989-0326Chun-Fang Li1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6897-8097Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University , 100 Guilin Road, 200233 Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Physics, Shanghai University , 99 Shangda Road, 200444 Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaBased on their finding that the circularly polarized Beltrami fields are solutions to their eigenvalue equation (7), the authors of preceding Comment claim that the linearly polarized basis is inapplicable to light waves in an isotropic chiral medium. We show that the analysis is flawed. The reason is twofold. Firstly, we prove that the Beltrami fields are, by definition, not a polarization basis for both the electric and magnetic fields of light waves in the chiral medium. Secondly, we demonstrate that linearly polarized and circularly polarized waves in the chiral medium are on the same footing if the electric and magnetic fields, rather than the Beltrami fields, are considered.https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ad9ac6polarization of lightisotropic chiral medianonexistence of circular birefringenceoptical rotationpropagation velocitypolarization basis |
| spellingShingle | Zhi-Juan Hu Chun-Fang Li Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’ New Journal of Physics polarization of light isotropic chiral media nonexistence of circular birefringence optical rotation propagation velocity polarization basis |
| title | Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’ |
| title_full | Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’ |
| title_fullStr | Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’ |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’ |
| title_short | Reply to Comment on ‘No circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium: an analysis of single-mode refraction’ |
| title_sort | reply to comment on no circular birefringence exists in a chiral medium an analysis of single mode refraction |
| topic | polarization of light isotropic chiral media nonexistence of circular birefringence optical rotation propagation velocity polarization basis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ad9ac6 |
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