Excitation of surface and volume electromagnetic waves in left-handed media by an electron bunch

We study theoretically the Vavilov-Čerenkov radiation from a nonrelativistic electron bunch moving in free space over a left-handed medium. It is shown that in the frequency range in which the refractive index of the medium is negative, Vavilov-Čerenkov radiation leads to simultaneous excitation of volume and surface electromagnetic waves in the same frequency range. The wave vector of the surface wave in the plane of an interface of two media is greater in magnitude than the corresponding quantity for the volume wave. The energy fluxes of volume and surface waves in the left-handed medium are studied. The radiation pattern of the bunch is found. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 406–417, May 2007.