Angle of incidence of minimum reflectance of a dielectric-conductor interface for incident unpolarized or circularly polarized light.

Abstract

The angle of incidence ϕ=ϕu min of minimum reflectance for incident unpolarized or circularly polarized light at a dielectric-conductor interface is determined for any complex relative refractive index N=(n,k), and contours of constant ϕu min in the nk plane are presented. The minimum reflectance Ru min at ϕu min is also plotted as a function of the polar angle 0≤θ=arg(N)≤90° along each constant ϕu min contour. Also presented are families of Ru-versus-ϕ curves for values of complex N at θ=30°, ϕu min=45° to 85° in steps of 10°, and values of complex N at ϕu min=75°, θ=0° to 90° in steps of 10°. Finally, a nonpolarimetric method for the determination of n and k of optical materials, which is based on measurements of ϕu min and the normal-incidence reflectance R0, is proposed.