Modified form birefringence in periodic, multilayer structures including uniaxial anisotropic materials

摘要

We use transfer matrix formalism to investigate periodic multilayer structures including uniaxial anisotropic materials in the specific case where the optical z axis is normal to the layer interfaces. Having decoupled the problem into two independent states of polarization, we first derive a universal transfer matrix for the unit cell of an arbitrary bilayer (z uniaxial-z uniaxial or z uniaxial-isotropic), and then determine the effective indices in the long-wavelength limit through a homogenization procedure. A graphic representation illustrates the analytical results in terms of generalized filling factors. The procedure is also generalized to n-ary stacks. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.