Optics of anisotropic nanostructures (Q2385220)

Considered is the optics of a planar multilayered structure sandwiched between two semi-bounded infinite media. Each layer is characterized by an hermitian permittivity tensor \(\varepsilon_{ij}\) with periodicity \(\Lambda\) along the arbitrary direction of a lattice vector \({\mathbf K}\), giving rise to a slanted grating. The Maxwell equations are first solved for plane waves solutions in the infinite anisotropic periodic medium in terms of the tangential and normal field components with respect to the plane interface, without any restriction as for the value of the period-to-wavelength ratio. The diffracted plane wave fields are expressed in the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of a matrix relation. The interfaces are taken into account in the Fraunhofer approximation, assuming that the field propagation in the bounded region is characterized by the eigenvalues and the eigenmodes of the unbounded region. The optics of one layer and that of multilayers is described in terms of incident, reflected and transmission modes. The derivation of the formulae is a very detailed version, for didactic reasons, of previous publications. The numerical results obtained for the model of an anisotropic periodic array of ferromagnetic wires and a comprehensive list of 72 references conclude the paper.