Optical refractive index of massive particles and physical meanings of left-handed media

In this Letter the expression for the refractive index of de Broglie wave in the presence of a potential field is obtained and based on this, the physical meanings of negative index of refraction is revealed. We demonstrate that the electromagnetic wave propagation in a left-handed medium with negative refractive index behaves just like that of antiphotons, which is required of the complex vector field theory. It is believed that the complex vector field theory is helpful in considering the wave propagation and photonic band gap structures in the left-handed medium photonic crystals with a periodicity in negative and positive indices of refraction.