Inhibited reflection: longitudinal and transverse displacement of the reflected ray

Abstract

We analyse the characteristics and calculate the magnitude of the lateral shift that the reflected beam that subsists under conditions of inhibited reflection in a dielectric uniaxial–isotropic interface suffers. We start from the generalization of Artmann's method for 3D beams in uniaxial crystals. The shift (related to the phase difference between the incident and the reflected electric fields) has longitudinal and transverse components both when the inhibited beam is ordinary and when it is extraordinary. Unlike what happens in dielectric isotropic interfaces under total reflection conditions, the shift of the reflected ray can be either positive or negative under inhibited reflection conditions. We compare this shift with shifts on dielectric-absorbent isotropic interfaces.