Field singularities at lossless metal–dielectric arbitrary-angle edges and their ramifications to the numerical modeling of gratings

Abstract

I extend a previous work [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 738 (2011)] on field singularities at lossless metal-dielectric right-angle edges and their ramifications to the numerical modeling of gratings to the case of arbitrary metallic wedge angles. Simple criteria are given that allow one knowing the lossless permittivities and the arbitrary wedge angles to determine if the electric field at the edges is nonsingular, can be regularly singular, or can be irregularly singular without calculating the singularity exponent. Furthermore, the knowledge of the singularity type enables one to predict immediately if a numerical method that uses Fourier expansions of the transverse electric field components at the edges will converge or not without making any numerical tests. All conclusions of the previous work about the general relationships between field singularities, Fourier representation of singular fields, and convergence of numerical methods for modeling lossless metal-dielectric gratings have been reconfirmed.