Viitanenet al. Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990/J. Opt. Soc. Am.

A 683

Eigensolutions for the reflection problem of the interface of

two chiral half-spaces

Ari J. Viitanen, Ismo V. Lindell, Ari H. Sihvola, and Sergei A. Tretyakov

Helsinki University of Technology, Electromagnetics Laboratory, Otakaari 5 A, 02150 Espoo,Finland

Received June 5, 1989; accepted November 8, 1989

The Silberstein wave-field decompositionof electromagnetic fields is applied to the problem of wavepropagation in
a chiral medium. The problem of a planar interface between two chiral media is considered, and eigensolutionsfor
the reflection and transmission problems are given. Numerical results are calculated for the eigenpolarizations and
reflection coefficients, with different incident field polarizations, for the problem of an interface between isotropic
and chiral media. Also, the limit cases for reflection from a half-space with only a small amount of chirality are
studied, and it is shown that the chirality gives a second-order effect on the copolarized reflection coefficient and a
first-order effect on cross polarization.

INTRODUCTION and derived copolarized and cross-polarized reflection coef-

ficients for incident and reflected vertically and horizontally
Optically active, or chiral, media have received considerable polarized fields. In this paper, the eigenpolarizations for
attention in recent years, although this phenomenon of opti- the reflection, i.e., field vectors whose polarization does not
cal activity has been known since the early 19th century. change in reflection and therefore do not produce cross po-
Chirality entails magnetoelectric coupling in the constitu- larization, are derived. The eigenpolarizations are not lin-
tive relations, but a chiral material is still isotropic. The ear, as in the reflection from an isotropic interface, nor are
characteristic waves that propagate in a homogeneous chiral they the same as the characteristic waves in either of the
medium are known to be right-circularly and left-circularly chiral media of the problem. Finding these polarizations is
polarized waves, which possess different propagation fac- tantamount to diagonalization of the reflection dyadic.
tors. Therefore a linearly polarized wave that propagates in The problem in the analysis is the abundance of vector
a chiral medium suffers Faraday rotation, but, contrary to bases that are offered by the geometry and the media; in
wave propagation in a nonreciprocal ionosphere, the hand- addition to the orthogonal transversal components in the
edness and amount of rotation are independent of the propa- plane of the interface, there are the complex unit vectors of
gation direction. Experiments and stereochemistry have the characteristic polarizations in both chiral media. The
shown many biological media to be chiral in the optical Fourier-transform eigenvectors that are needed in the re-
region, and also artificially chiral materials at microwave flection analysis are not orthogonal, and therefore, for the
frequencies have been synthesized by immersing helices of formulation in terms of a reflection dyadic, the reciprocal
the same handedness in a support matrix.' unit-vector basis that is biorthogonal to the original vector
The dyadic Green's function for homogeneous chiral space set is needed. In this paper, subindices 1 and 2 denote the
has been solved in Ref. 2, and an alternative way is given in media, subindices + and - denote the two characteristic
Ref. 3. Also, reflection and transmission from a boundary waves in the media, and superindices and t represent
that separates isotropic and chiral media have been stud- waves that propagate downward and upward, respectively.
ied." Reflection coefficients for linearly polarized incident The upper medium is numbered 1, and the lower medium is
fields have been derived, and an equation for the Brewster numbered 2; the interface is horizontal. Vectors that are
angle has been given. Reflection at optical wavelengths has denoted by a correspond to the characteristic waves, and the
been studied experimentally.7 An extension of this iso- reciprocal vectors are denoted by b. In addition to these
tropic-chiral interface problem is electromagnetic transmis- vectors, there are the reflection eigenpolarization vectors,
sion through a chiral slab and has been treated in Refs. 5, 8, which, while not orthogonal in the general case, also require
and 9. Theoretical treatment by considering properties like reciprocal vectors. In Appendix A, dot products between
duality, reciprocity, and Huygens's principle in homoge- vectors of different bases are given to facilitate the transfor-
neous chiral media can be found in Refs. 10 and 11. Scatter- mation of expressions between different representations.
ing problems that involve chiral objects have been studied in Also, another issue that concerns notation deserves a com-
Refs. 12, 13, and 14. ment. There are different ways to include the chirality in
In this paper, the Silberstein wave-field decomposition of the constitutive relations and, consequently, different pa-
electromagnetic fields is applied, permitting a decoupled rameters through which the chiral effect is expressed. In
form of solutions in chiral media. In terms of these wave this paper, the constitutive relations give the electric and
fields, reflection and transmission that are due to a planar magnetic flux densities D and B as functions of the field-
interface between two chiral half-spaces are analyzed. The strength amplitudes E and H, chirality appears in a dimen-
previous discussions on the reflection problem" studied sionless quantity K. Another form for these relations is the
only the interface between an isotropic and a chiral medium one in Ref. 5, where D and H are given as functions of E and

0740-3232/90/040683-10$02.00 © 1990 Optical Society of America

684 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990 Viitanenet al.

B. It is important to be aware of the definitions of the S+ = - ((J. - ijJ), (13)

constitutive parameters when one is comparing the results of
the analysis with those that employ a different notation;
reflection from a chiral half-space does not depend on K for S_= 1 (J,, + i1J). (14)
normal incidence in our notation, but in the notation of Ref.
5 the reflection coefficient contains the chiral cross term of Calling the vectors E+ and E_ wave fields, we note that
the constitutive relations. they are decoupled in the above Maxwell equations [Eqs.
(11) and (12)], much as they are in isotropic media, as first
recognized by Silberstein in 1907.16,17 The isotropic medi-
THEORY um is obtained as a special case from the above setting, K= 0.
Let us first consider the simple case of homogeneous chiral A solution to the interface problem can be obtained
5
space, with the constitutive relations through Fourier transformation in the plane of the interface
(xy plane), which is perpendicular to the z axis as defined by
D = eE-jjyB, (1) the unit vector u (Fig. 1). Denoting the Fourier variable by
H = -jyE + B. (2) K, we can write the Fourier-transform wave fields from Eqs.
(11) and (12):

Let us change the definition of these symbols in the follow- u X E+'- jK X E+ - r+E+ = S+, (15)
ing way:
u X E-'- jK X E_ - r.E- =S, (16)
f + -Y2 --'6 (3)
where
y AI K, (4)
T = k(K r 1). (17)

which gives rise to the followingconstitutive equations: The prime ' here denotes the derivative d/dz.
Let us now derive the corresponding equations for the
D = eE -jK /H,
transverse wave field components by writing the fields in
B= AH + jK;FjE. (6) transverse and u-directed parts:
Here, chirality is included in K, which is a dimensionless E = e, + ue,. (18)
quantity. K << 1 means small chirality. Unlike for isotropic
or uniaxially anisotropic media, with the axis normal to the Equations (15) and (16) can be written in two parts as
interface, the TE and TM fields couple to one another in the
present chiral medium, which makes the analysis more com- -ju - K X e, -r-,eL = s, (19)
plicated. In Ref. 15 the losslessness conditions for bianiso-
tropic media are derived using the constitutive relations (5) u Xe,' + ju X Ke - re, =s, (20)
and (6) [rather than Eqs. (1) and (2)], and one condition is
that the cross-coupling terms have to be complex conjugates if we denote
of each other, which is satisfied in Eqs. (5) and (6). Howev- S. = S4 + US,. (21)
er, physics does not restrict K by any relation with e and ,.
From Eq. (19) we may solve for the axial field components:
Wave Fields
Let us briefly give the derivation for the field equations in e = - -(ju XK *e, + s), (22)
T4
the chiral medium. From the Maxwell equations, where the
wave number wVe1A is denoted by k, which can be substituted into Eq. (20) to produce the equa-
v XH j,eE+kKH+J, (7) tion

V XE = jwAuH+ kKE -J, (8)

I T
al+
by the followingsubstitution of the fields: a+

E=E+ +E, (9) a1I..

aT
1-
H = 1 (E+ -EJ, (10) el Al K1
in I
62 A2 K2
where n = F7e, we can write simpler equations for the new
2
field functions:
v X E+ - k(K - )E, = S+, (11) .1

v XE. - k(K + 1)E_ = S_. (12)

Fig. 1. Geometry of the reflection and transmission problem; two
The new source functions are defined as chiral media are separated by a planar boundary.
Viitanen et al. Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 685

d with
(UXSt%
dz
+ uuxxKK
T~
7r.
r-Tt--e =s + -t
u XKs.
J =a Xa u = j(#+T_ -A f!T+)K2 . (33)
(23)
The two sets of basis vectors are biorthogonal because they
In the sourceless region, this relation can also be written as satisfy
dz e+(z) + jq, e,(z) = 0, (24) a4t- - bt = 1, at4- - bt=F = 0, (34)

with the propagation dyadics al+ - b+ = , al+ -b T_ = . (35)

q-- u X(uuxKK- 2)- (25) Impedance, Reflection, and Transmission Dyadics

Consider next the reflection and transmission problem of
Instead of trying to solve the general source problem, we two chiral media separated by a planar horizontal interface
concentrate here on the problem of propagating plane waves according to Fig. 1. The incident field is propagating from
that are defined as the Fourier component fields. Conse- the upper medium 1 toward the interface. From the conti-
quently, we omit source vectors s by assuming that they lie nuity of the total tangential electric and magnetic fields, we
sufficiently far from the region of interest. For definition of obtain the reflected and transmitted field amplitudes. Ex-
the double cross product and for dyadic formalism in gener- pressions are easily obtained from impedance consider-
al, see Ref. 18. ations. Let us define wave impedances for the upgoing and
downgoing waves as follows:
Eigenpolarizations
Obviously the eigenpolarizations are the eigenvectors of the et = t (-u X ht), e&=,81 (u X h). (36)
dyadics q that satisfy The followingexpressions for the impedance dyadics can be
q, at = t at. (26) derived with some labor, but the result can be verified quite
easily:
Here, stands for either t (upgoingwave) or (downgoing
wave). It is easy to see that the following eigenvalues and
t aL + aat
eigenvectors satisfy the eigenvalue Eq. (26): at Xat *u
o = T+_ g2, =d -7/T K2 (27)
al a + al a.
38$i 4Xa 1 -u (38)
at = lt K +u X K. (28)

Here, the real part of the square root is defined to be posi- In fact, writing for the most general upgoing field, we get
tive.
The most general solutions for the transversal wave fields et = A+at + A-at (39)
can be written in the sourceless region as
ht = (A+at -Aa-); (40)

=
e+(z) = et (0)exp(-jflt ) + el (0)exp(-jjl z), (29) in
and to obtain the total transverse field we have to sum the with any coefficients A+ and A-, we have
two wave fields:
e(z) = e (0)exp(-j3 z) + e (0)exp( j z)
3t [- - X(A+at
- A-at)
+ e_(0)exp(-j3tLz) + e (0)exp(-jib z). (30) A+a (a X at . u) + A-at(at Xat -u)
a~.
t. u x a et. (41)
To check our calculations, we may study the isotropic
medium with K = 0. In this case r4, = Fk, and the eigenva- In the same manner, the dyadic that corresponds to the
lues are the same for both signs and reduce to At = k2 - K2, downgoing wave can also be checked. The two impedance
2 2 dyadics are not the same in general because the eigenvectors
= -Vk - K . Thus, in the isotropic medium, there exist
only two eigenvalues and eigenpolarizations, which is well can be different for the upgoing and downgoingwaves.
known. The corresponding admittance dyadics are defined as
The eigenpolarizations at, a! and the unit normal vector two-dimensional inverses of the impedance dyadics,18
u form a basis. The corresponding reciprocal basis can be which, for a symmetric dyadic .8, can be calculated as fol-
written as lows:

bt, bt, u, (31) spi UU

(42)
spm 8
where
By,3t' we denote the two-dimensional inverse of 8. There
altx u 1 does not exist a three-dimensional inverse. The sum of
(32)
principal minors is defined by
686 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990 Viitanen et al.

or
spm ,8 = 2 8X& uu = 772. (43)
2 (52)
(Ai - D)) *r = p(D1 + DI) r.
It is not difficult to show that we can write The eigenvector r we expand in terms of the downgoing
characteristic waves of the lower medium:
t = ± jj (b bt + b b+), (44)
r - 1 (a+ + ba._). (53)
with the upper and lowersigns corresponding to upgoing and
downgoing waves, respectively. In the basis of K vectors
The dyadic eigenvalue equation decomposes into two sca-
and u X K vectors, lar equations that represent K and u X K components from
which the eigenvalue p and the corresponding ratio of the
D) =+ 7 jt [2,r-,+KK - 2B flt uuxKK amplitudes a for the components of the eigenpolarization
vectors are obtained. After first eliminating from the two
-j(r3 + _#t )(u X KK + Ku X K)]. (45) scalar equations, the characteristic equation for determining
To determine the reflection dyadic 9Z,we assume a down- the eigenvalues of the reflection dyadic is obtained in the
general case:
going wave el in the upper medium 1; the wave also gives rise
to a reflected upgoing wave el = e and a transmitted Ap2 +Bp + C= 0, (54)
wave e4 = Z *el in medium 2. Continuity of the electric and
magnetic fields at the interface gives us the two conditions where the coefficients are
needed for the determination of the reflection dyadic WZ. A= 1 + n2)+ 'l1'f21t2(
4
T+TjI2+#2-
The first condition can be written as
+ 4Tr2+T2-3i+#i1. - 2O) (55)
eI + el = (M+ S) *el = el = . el (46)
B=2 + 22 + 4T1+Tj_
1 _+#L-)
or, since this is valid for any two-dimensional vector el, as
the dyadic condition - 2717~12J (56)
4
T +% = - (47) C = j12(,72 + 772)-7fl12t12( r+T1-I2+2-

For the continuity of the tangential magnetic field, we write + 4T2+T2 4_1+1- + 2M12) (57)

uXhI + u X h = t e + e = (t * + ) el with
= u X 2= )2 e = 2 *E e1. (48) i 7.iA + i+#,L, (58)

This relation implies that the following dyadic equation is i Ti-#+ - Ti+_- (59)
valid:
')- Dt- = S2 (9 + t),(49) On the other hand, if the eigenvalue p is eliminated from
the above equation, the corresponding characteristic equa-
from which the reflection dyadic can finally be solved in the tion for the parameter ( is obtained in the following form:
form
a62 + b6+c = 0, (60)
= (Dt+ Dj)-l *(DI - I). (50) where

Note the similarity to the corresponding formula in the a = 721(2T23 1+0 -2_ l+Tl-)
isotropic case and the difference in that the admittance - l(r2_#I+#_ + #1.rl+Trl_), (61)
dyadics for the upgoing and downgoing waves are different
in general. b= 272W1(r2+r 2 -#i+ - 1r +Tj_# +_'_) (62)
The transmission dyadic is given by Eq. (47).
c = 772W(T2+'+#1'- - I32 Tj+Tj_)

EIGENSOLUTIONS FOR THE REFLECTION + 7 1 rl(T2+i3I+#-+ 12 Tl+rl-). (63)

DYADIC
The eigenvectors are in general not orthogonal. There-
fore the corresponding reciprocal basis vectors for the re-
General Case
The eigensolutions of the reflection dyadic can be calculated flected eigenvectors have to be evaluated:
from the two-dimensional eigenvalue equation by substitut-
ing the expressions of the admittance dyadics for both media SV = a2_ (-Shbl+ + bL.), (64)
and the eigenvectors into the expression of the eigenvalue =v h 2 2
equation:
Sh,= 6, OA
(du2 bl-), (65)
TR*r = r (51) v S~h 2 2
Vfitanen et al. Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 687

rv s = 1, rh Sh = 1, rv Sh= , rh S = , (n2kl1+ - nl#lT 2 +) +: 5( 2 kl#- + 171flT2-)

(66)
Plv,h = ( 2kl01++ 7110 1r2+) + B(7(
2kl#L - nll#T2-)
(72)

where (v and h represent the roots of the characteristic

1
equation. The indices v and h are used because the eigen- rh =- (2+ 2-3..) (73)
values of the reflection dyadic approach the reflection coeffi-
cients of the vertically and horizontally polarized waves,
respectively, as the chirality vanishes. The index v corresponds to the upper sign in Eq. (72), and
Finally the reflection dyadic and the transmission dyadic the index h corresponds to the lower sign.
can be written in terms of the eigenvectors and the reciprocal The eigenvalues can also be written with the material and
basis vectors as geometrical parameters as

1)2011(K
++
-

72l (K sin 8 + n(K

1)co +J [n2 $262 n( + 1)c J]
Pv,h = (74)

- $161sin 2
2
2 4 (K-1) 0- 1 (K- 1)cos 01 (32 -- sin +(K
+ + 1)cos 01
[ V $262

= Pvrvsv + Phrhsh, (67) where is the angle of the incident wave. With small values
of K, the eigenvalues are
Z = (1 + pv)rvsv + (1 + Ph)rhSh, k0a)

)
PV= RV + O(K 2 ), (75)
where Pv and Ph are the two eigenvalues for the reflection
2 (76)
problem [Eq. (54)]. Ph = Rh + O(K ),

where
Special Cases
Let us consider some special cases. First, by putting K = 0, ( 2
~~~~1/2
the achiral isotropic medium is obtained. In this case, ia- = fl2 1 - sin2 2 + 1 os
zrk, and both ,Bt's coincide with the propagation factor ,. (77)
\ U2e2 ( 1/2
After a few steps, the admittance dyadic [Eq. (45)] can be 772 1 -- sin +, 1 Cos0
obtained in the form
(26 /22
2t = 1
k KK + uUxKKI (69) ( M161 2 1/2
n K2 k K2 )' 772CO
0- 71k $262 si
which is the well-knownrepresentation in terms of TM- and
Rh = ( \~~~1/2.
(78)
TE-wave admittances that are k/3 and 0/Iqk,respectively. 17
2 COS0
+ 1 1 -- Msin 2
Also, it is easy to verify that in this case, the dyadic 2)t equals k $26E2 )
the dyadic 2t, or we may drop the arrow. RV and Rh are the reflection coefficients for TM and TE
The reflection dyadic [Eq. (50)] is easily seen to reduce to waves, respectively.
the well-known form valid for isotropic media: Small chirality perturbation expansion for ( is

9Z= (2)l D2)-l ' (Dl - 201 (70) ( = 1+ 2f2 K + O(K2 ) whenAle - A262= 0(1),
Alfl - A262
and the reflected eigenpolarization vectors are K and u X K, (79)
which represent the TM and TE waves, respectively.
As another special case, a chiral medium 2 that is below an and for $le1 = Au262, ( becomes imaginary:
isotropic medium 1 with the respective parameters 62, $2,
S=j 1- 1 K +O(K 2). (80)
and K and e1and Al should be considered. For the isotropic 2
medium the terms T.+ = -,r- = -k 1 and 01+= #f_ = -11.
Then the equation for the parameter 6 [Eq. (60)] reduces to The reflection and the transmission dyadics can be writ-
the form ten with the eigenvectors and the reciprocal eigenvectors as
in Eqs. (67) and (68). The reciprocal eigenvectors reduce to
(2 = (2+1)2 -(+k) 2
k2 -T2 the form
(71)
(T291)2 -(93-k) kk2-2 1 (bl+ I' bl-)- (81)
Svh = C2 2 a 2
The square root with the positive real part is denoted next by
6, which has the same meaning as (3 in the previous section. In the upper medium the fields are expressed with upgo-
The following eigenvalues and eigenvectors are obtained: ing and downgoing waves in that medium, and it is useful to
688 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990 Viitanenet al.

express the reflection dyadic in terms of these vectors. For

that reason the transformation between the basis vectors K = + 1 -V-) (89)
(al,, bi) and (at+, bl) is performed. One way to obtain the
transformation relation between the two bases is by using the reflected wave is circularly polarized. The eigenvalues
the two-dimensional unit dyadic [Eq. (A9)] given in Appen- Puand Ph are the same, and there is no cross polarization in
dix A. After the transformation of the basis vectors the the reflection for incident wavesthat are polarized according
reflection dyadic can be written as to the characteristic waves of the upper medium, as can be
seen from Eq. (82).
at_bf - h
Ph at+b
2 1 + 2 1

1.0
Pu h al Pv + Ph

.
......
-

2cr at-bl - ~2 ajtb 1 , (82) e= 5

= 0o
where
0.5
((K + 1)2- 3 sin2 + (K+ 1)cos0 Pv
A2$2 a.
a (83)
h=1
(K- 12-2 sin - (K-1)COS 0.0 . . . . . .
A2'2 / °i IC= I

With small values of K, Ph

Awn a 2
cub U
a=1+ $1siV0\ K + O(K ),
-0.5 -
$ E1 A-2$2 1
$262 )
$lfl - $2E2= 0(1), (84)
-1.0 - 1.0
2 -1 .0 -0.5 0.0 0.5
a=i [1+
2 + co
(-1
COS2)K + 0(K ),
8)] () $161
lf = $262.
22 Re(R)
(85) Fig. 2. Loci of the two eigenvalues for the reflection problem as the
chiral parameter of the lower half-space changes from 0 to 1 as
The reflection dyadic and the eigenvectors in the basis (K, indicated by the arrows. The upper medium is air, and the relative
permittivity of the lower medium is 5. The incidence angle is 30°
u X K) can be written in the form
from nadir.

P + Ph + Pv, Ph ( + 1 KK + [Pu Ph ( -
w = 2 4 V~~~~~2 4 Va)_
1.0
X jk1 (u X K)K+ [P Ph 1 iK(uX K)
2
13I K2 4 Oj- k, K 0= 30

rP + Ph _ P Ph ( 1\ UUxKK 0.5 -
(86)
L P P 4 +CTJ K2

P. = gC=1 Ic=O r= 0.776

. . . . . . . . --_._}_. ------
ruh = -y U7(12+
+ 501-)K + ( 2+ (3T2-)U X K]. (87) -0.0 - ; .
'c =
----- -- - --- -- - v ----------------

E P. + PA

I 2 1
I
I
In the lower medium the transmitted fields are expressed
with downgoingwaves al. It is therefore practical to write -0.5:- P. - pi
the transmission dyadic in terms of the downgoing waves I - 2
instead of the reflected eigenvectors: E.-~~~~

:= (1+ P ai+b++ P 2lP aP+bh

)Ph -1 .0 - TT . . ..... T T. , ,- ,
.. . . . . . . . , .****i**111
-1.0 -0.5 0.0 ...
0.5 1.0
Re(R)
+ 6 P° h ab + 1 + P lh)
-b (88) Fig. 3. Loci of the like- and cross-polarized reflection coefficients
when the incident field has the polarization of downgoingcharacter-
istic wave (at+) of the upper medium. The chirality of the lower
Considering the reflected and transmitted fields, we no- half-space changes from 0 to 1 as indicated by the arrows. The
tice two circumstances. First, in the special case when the upper medium is air, and the relative permittivity of the lower
chirality has a value medius is 5. The incidence angle is 30° from nadir.
Viitanenet al. Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 689

1.0 dence. Because chirality affects the phase velocities of the

e= 5 two wave fields, a reflection coefficient that corresponds to a
slab, for example, is dependent on K.
0 = 30° At oblique incidence the off-diagonal terms appear. This
' =1
0.5 property could be used for measuring the rate of the chirality
VVGo of the lower medium. From the reflection at the normal
incidence, the characteristics $ and can be determined.
Thereafter, by measuring the cross terms at the oblique
E 0.0 - / ~ ~~~
' X|=.0 1 X1 . . .1
reflection, we find that it is possible to calculate the value of
,c = 0.776 1 the chirality parameter K.
When the chirality is small the reflection dyadic can be
\I
written as
-0.5 * 9 = 0.776 T = Ru KK+Rh +i(Ru-Rh)

Alfl 1
-1 l .. . ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. ... .. . .
,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
.. . .,,,,,,,.,I X
All- A2E2 /1
-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 -
- $ -sin 22 o0 1/2
Re(R) A2 E2 /
Fig. 4. Loci of the like- and cross-polarized reflection coefficients
as the incident field is vertically polarized. The chirality of the
lower half-space changes from 0 to 1 as indicated by the arrows. X r(uX K)K + cos 2 0 K2
2
K + O(K ), (92)
The upper medium is air, and the relative permittivity of the lower
medium is 5. The incidence angle is 300 from nadir.
and indeed, the chirality can most accurately be determined
from the cross-polarized reflection because it is a first-order
Second, considering the transmitted field at oblique wave effect unlike the like-polarized reflection coefficients [cf.
incidence, we notice that as the angle of the incident wave Eqs. (75) and (76)].
becomes larger than the value 0,, the transmitted field con- Figures 2, 3, and 4 illustrate the reflection coefficients in
sists only of the wave field marked by - when K is positive or the complex plane for the case in which the relative permit-
a wave marked by + when K is negative. The propagation tivity and permeability values of the problem are el = 1, 62=
factor of the other wave-field component in the lower medi- 5, $1 = $2 = 1, and 0 = 300 as a function of the chirality
um is then imaginary. The condition for the critical inci- parameter 0 • K • 1. Figure 2 gives the eigenvalues of the
dence angle is reflection dyadic in complex space according to Eq. (72).
Figure 3 presents the reflection when the incident wave is
a, The reflected waves are at and al+, and the corre-
sin0, $2= 2 (1J-KI). (90) sponding reflection coefficients are the two first terms of Eq.
$lfl (82). Figure 4 expresses the reflection when the incident

At normal incidence the eigenvalues of the reflection dy-

adic are identical, and the reflection dyadic is diagonal. 2-

-
There is no cross-polarized reflection, which is a result also
reported in Ref. 5. Every incident field will conserve polar-
ization in reflection at normal incidence because the reflec-
tion dyadic is a multiple of a unit dyadic. But a more
interesting result is that the reflection coefficient p is inde-
pendent of the chirality parameter K and is the same as for I-- AR,
nonchiral interface:
0 0
% 71 . . . . I '

P = - (91)
E_7
772+ 11

This fact must be emphasized because the result given in /

.>- AR&
Ref. 5 seems to be dependent on the chirality through the -1 -
parameter y. However, as y is expressed in terms of K and
the definition for e used in this paper is adopted [relation r=1 --71 ,
(3)], the contradiction disappears. In fact, this notation
makes the relation between the electric and magnetic fields -2-
in the wave fields independent of the chirality parameter, as -2 -1 0 1 2
is seen, for example, by assuming E_ = 0 and by noting that Re(Axial ratio)
H+ = E+/j 7 . Thus the impedances of propagating waves are
Fig. 5. Axial ratios of the two eigenwaves of the reflection problem
independent of K and so are reflection and transmission from a chiral half-space as the chirality changes from 0 to 1 as
coefficients at a single planar boundary for the normal inci- indicated by the arrows. The angle is 00 from nadir.
690 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A/Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990 Viitanen et al.

1.0 wave is vertically polarized (K wave). The reflection coeffi-

cient of the vertically polarized and the cross-polarized
waves are the first two terms in Eq. (86). From these figures
0.5
of the reflection coefficient loci in the complex plane, it can
Q)
-I be seen that for some regions of K the curves follow the
0.0 circumference of a circle. However, there are also sharp
E turning points from the circle, and these turning points
correspond to the chirality values that can be calculated
-0.5 from Eq. (90). Figure 3 shows clearly that the chirality does
not much affect the reflection coefficient of the wave that
-1. 0 4- has reversed handedness with respect to the incident wave,
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 whereas the reflection coefficient of the wave with the same
Chirality K
handedness as the incident wave is highly sensitive to the
Fig. 6. Polarization vectors [Eq. (93)] of the two eigensolutions for chirality.
the reflection problem of air and chiral half-space for different The polarization state of the reflected field can be studied
relative permittivity values of the lower half-space. The incidence
angle is 0° from nadir. with the polarization vectors' 9
rvh X rvh
Pv~~~h
_.u_
Pujh . * -
(93)
Jruh* ru~h

2- The polarization vector of a wave is a real-valued vector for

lC= 1 > e=5
which the absolute value is smaller than 1. The polarization
0
k 0 =3 ' vector gives the state of the polarization. If the absolute
value of the vector is 0, the reflected wave is linearly polar-
0.776 ,
1 14- 0.776 ized, and if it is equal to 1, the reflected wave is circularly
/'\k =l polarized. Otherwise the wave is elliptically polarized. In
0-- Fig. 5 the complex axial ratio of the reflected eigenvectors (u
\ AR,
0 X K - ru,h)/(K rv,h)is illustrated as a function of the chirality
L.
0* at normal incidence. Figure 6 shows the polarization vector
as a function of chirality at normal incidence with different
relative permittivity values of the chiral lower half-space.
/ From Fig. 6 it can be seen that as the chirality vanishes, the
E -1 eigenwave is linearly polarized. As the chirality increases,
the field changes from elliptically polarized to circularly
sc= 0.553 polarized, which occurs at the special value of chirality ex-
pressed in Eq. (89), and further, it continues to change once
more from elliptically polarized to linear polarization. For
-2 1 still greater values of chirality the wave is elliptically polar-
-1 0
Re(Axial ratio) ized and approaches circularly polarized state when the chir-
ality reaches the value 1.
Fig. 7. Axial ratios of the two eigenvalues of the reflection problem Finally, Figs. 7 and 8 show the complex axial ratio and the
of a chiral half-space as the chirality changes from 0 to 1 as indicated
by the arrows. The upper medium is air, and the relative permittiv- polarization of the eigenwaves for oblique incidence as a
ity of the lower medium is 5. The incidence angle is 30° from nadir. function of chirality K. Like in Figs. 2-4, the incidence angle
is 300, and the relative permittivity of the lowerhalf space is
5. Equations (89) and (90) give the chirality of the turning
points from the circles.
1 .0
CONCLUSION
= 30'
0.5 \ The problem of a planar interface between two chiral media
a) is considered. The Silberstein wave-field decomposition of
electromagnetic fields is applied to the reflection problem in
-- 0.0-- p chiral media. The solution is considered through Fourier
E transformation in the transversal plane, which permits a
solution to the plane-wave problem with distant sources.
-0.5-
The eigenpolarization vectors in both media are determined,

-1.0 000.0 0.2 0.4

Chirality
6 0.81
0.
0.6 0.8
K
l.0
and the corresponding reciprocal basis vectors are present-
ed. Expressions for the reflection and the transmission
dyadics are obtained from the continuity conditions of the
tangential total electric and magnetic fields. Eigensolu-
Fig. 8. Polarization vectors [Eq. (93)] of the two eigensolutions for
the reflection problem of air and chiral half-space. The upper
tions of the reflection dyadic for the interface of two chiral
medium is air, and the relative permittivity of the lower medium is media are calculated from a dyadic eigenvalue equation.
5. The incidence angle is 300 from nadir. Finally the expressions for the reflection and the transmis-
Viitanenet al. Vol. 7, No. 4/April 1990/J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 691

sion dyadics are given in terms of the reflection eigenpolari- UXK= !1 (#,2 +aI,2-- ,2 -at )
zation vectors and the corresponding reciprocal basis vec- p1,2 1,2+
tors.
The special case with the upper medium isotropic and the
lower medium chiral is considered in more detail. Expres- -- ~ 1(2+al,2--
- (/12+4
- i31,2-
a 1,2+
), (All)
sions for the eigenvalues of the reflection dyadic and the jK(1,2+b b
corresponding eigenpolarization vectors are given. The re- (A12)
flection and the transmission dyadics are written in terms of K = jK2 (3$,2 +b, 2 + + ,2 1,2-)
eigenpolarization vectors and the corresponding reciprocal
basis vectors in both media. The Brewster effect and the U X K = K2(r,,2 +b1,2 + + T1,2 1,2-)- (A13)
total reflection effect have been found for the wave fields.
Constants Jt4,2[Eq. (33)] and p1,2[Eq. (59)] are
Finally polarization effects for a wave that is reflected from
the chiral medium are considered in terms of TE and TM J1,2 = a, 2 + X a, 2 U = - 2_T12+)K2, (A14)
i3, 2 +T, 2
fields. At normal incidence, reflection is found to occur
similar to that for the isotropic medium. The cross-polar- p1,2`r1,2-#1,2+ -1,2+#i,2-- (A15)
ization effects caused by the chirality will appear at oblique
wave incidence.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
APPENDIX A This research was partly supported by the Ministry of Edu-
This appendix gives a collection of identities that can be cation and the Academy of Finland.
used for converting formulas from one vector basis of the
reflection problem to another:
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