On Oct 1, 2008, at 3:34 PM, Andreas Francke wrote: > How should be the refractive index (or epsilon (* n n))) one sets in > Meep be considered? The effective index, the group index, the phase > index, or else?
It's the refractive index, period. All of the other things you mention are properties of wave propagation and depend on the geometry. If you have a homogeneous medium with a frequency-independent index n, then the group-velocity index and the phase-velocity index are all the same thing. "Effective index" means different things in different contexts, but in any context and with any definition, the effective index of a homogeneous dispersionless medium is just the refractive index, too. Steven _______________________________________________ meep-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://ab-initio.mit.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/meep-discuss
