Reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves by a linearly accelerated dielectric slab

Abstract

The reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves by a dielectric slab which performs a given accelerated motion is investigated theoretically. Rigorous expressions for the reflected and transmitted waves are obtained by making use of the covariant properties of Maxwell's equations under the arbitrary coordinate transformations. It is found that there exists a small Doppler shift in frequency for the transmitted wave due to the drag effect of the moving medium. It is shown that this frequency shift depends on the acceleration, the index of refraction, and the width of the slab and is independent of the velocity of the slab.