Propagation characteristics of a plane wave in an unbounded nonlocal omega medium

In this paper, we derive the main propagation characteristics and the polarization properties of plane waves propagating inside a nonlocal bianisotropic medium. An original condition of circular polarizability is also derived and studied. The nonlocal omega medium can, in principle, be thought of as a spreading of a large number of nonlocal omega elements in an otherwise simple isotropic dielectric host medium. A nonlocal omega element is an electrically conducting microstructure having its stem parallel to the electric field at a given point, and its loop axis parallel to the magnetic, field at another point that is somewhat displaced from the first along the direction of the wave propagation. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett.