Perfect electromagnetic conductor medium

This article presents a review of a novel concept in electromagnetics, the Perfect Electromagnetic Conductor (PEMC). In the Minkowskian representation of the material response to electromagnetic fields, PEMC corresponds to the axion part of the constitutive tensor. From the electrical engineering point of view, PEMC is a generalization of the perfect electric conductor (PEC) and perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) materials which are useful concepts as ideal boundaries in the modeling of electromagnetic problems. PEMC is characterized by a pseudoscalar, admittance-type parameter M, with limits 1/M -> 0 (PEC) and M -> 0 (PMC). This paper discusses how the PECM medium as a boundary or in particulate form generalizes earlier known electromagnetic problems (reflection, scattering, materials modeling, waveguides, resonators, image principles). The main effect of PEMC boundary is to rotate the polarization plane of the reflected electric field vector. Also practical realization aspects of a PEMC medium are discussed in the paper. (c) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim