Loss–gain compensated anti-Hermitian magnetodielectric medium to realize Tellegen nihility effects

Abstract

Generalized duality transformations significantly modify the constitutive relations of electromagnetic media, preserving principal electromagnetic properties. Here, we contemplate transformation of Tellegen nihility as a specific type of extreme-property nonreciprocal bi-isotropic media and show that some intriguing electromagnetic properties of that medium can be realized in a particular class of isotropic magnetodielectric media without magnetoelectric coupling. We show that the permittivity and permeability of the corresponding transformed medium have equal absolute values and opposite signs. Depending on the value of the Tellegen parameter of the original medium, the transformed magnetodielectric medium can be Hermitian, non-Hermitian, or anti-Hermitian, which simultaneously exhibits loss and gain. Focusing on the latter class of anti-Hermitian media, we theoretically and numerically demonstrate that this extraordinary medium allows propagation of electromagnetic plane waves having zero time-averaged Poynting vector, similarly to the original Tellegen nihility media. Hopefully, this work can open novel opportunities for manipulating electromagnetic fields.