Equations of macroscopic electrodynamics for two-dimensional crystals

Abstract

The electrodynamics of two-dimensional (2D) dielectric and conducting layers cannot be described by three-dimensional macroscopic quantities such as the dielectric constant ϵ or the refractive index n. By means of the proper averaging of the microscopic Maxwell equations, we derive general macroscopic electrodynamic equations for 2D crystals and discuss some of their consequences.