Chapter 2 - Spectral characteristics of a thin lithographic tri-layer chiral slab resonator

Abstract

A chiral slab resonator with dielectric loss in the thin-film limit is considered. The resonator is configured in a tri-layer lithographic structure. Singularities emerge for variable angles of incidence and frequencies which in the lossless and lossy limits exhibit minor departures from expected power coefficient behavior, but generally remain in the proximity of energy conservation. Cases involving both right circularly polarized and left circularly polarized propagating modes, characteristic of bulk chiral materials, are investigated to derive the Fresnel amplitude coefficients at each interface of the resonator slab (achiral–chiral and chiral–achiral) and the overall resonator itself following multipath reflection and transmission along the lines of a Fabry–Perot resonator. Overall, results show that mode densities decrease, modes become more nonuniform, linewidths increase in the thin-film limit, and phenomena such as inverse total internal reflection and resonant mode variations relative to slab thickness and dielectric loss are observed under the tri-layer thin-film configuration.