Abstract

The interconnection between magnetoelectricity and electromagnetism is a subject of numerous discussions in microwave and optical wave physics and material sciences. In metamaterial electrodynamics, 3D-confined subwavelength resonant object with strong magnetoelectric (ME) responses are considered as " artificial atoms" – ME meta-atoms. With the symmetry breaking effects inside the ME resonator, one can observe nontrivial symmetry breakings in the vacuum region near this resonator. This determines the properties of ME near fields. While EM wave propagation is seen as a process of coupling between polar (E-field) and axial (H-field) vectors in a region the size of a wavelength, for local ME resonators, we should observe the coupling between polar and axial vectors in the subwavelength region. In a singular domain of ME fields, there is a violation of the symmetry of time reversal and spatial reflection. Due to the ME energy, the entire EM continuum is strongly modified both in the near-field and far-field regions. The fundamental study of the interaction of a resonant point ME scatterer with EM radiation constitutes a new field of research, which we call magnetoelectric electrodynamics.

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