Electromagnetic fields scattered from irregular layered media

Abstract

Full-wave expressions are presented for the electromagnetic fields scattered from a layered structure consisting of a planar surface coated by a dielectric material of irregular thickness. Each term of the full-wave expansion for the vertically or horizontally polarized electromagnetic fields scattered by the irregular stratified media has a physical interpretation. The full-wave solutions satisfy the reciprocity and duality relationships in electromagnetic theory. The slope-dependent surface scattering coefficients are invariant to coordinate transformations. The expression for the zero-order scattered field reduces to that of a specularly reflected wave from an unperturbed parallel stratified medium. The analysis is relevant to problems of communication in irregular stratified media and remote sensing of stratified media and for interpretation of ellipsometric data from irregular layered media.