Negative-refractive bicrystal with broken symmetry produces asymmetric electromagnetic fields in guided-wave heterostructures.

Heterostructure arrangements of uniaxial bicrystals have been discovered to produce electromagnetic fields with asymmetric distributions in guide wave structures. The property behind this remarkable phenomenon is the broken crystalline symmetry which allows the new physics to be seen in unsymmetric distributions. Here the theory behind this phenomenon is presented, numerical calculations are performed using an ab initio anisotropic Green's function approach, and the results provided at 10 GHz for a realistic crystal system with nominal permittivity of 5. Asymmetric distributions seen here are one facet of the broken symmetry property which generates negative refraction for impinging waves on a bicrystal.