Plane wave reflection from a chiral slab backed by soft and hard surfaces with application to polarisation transformers

Abstract

Plane wave reflection from soft and hard surfaces coated with chiral material is analysed for normal incidence. The fields inside the chiral slab are presented with circularly polarised eigenwaves. The eigenwaves are not coupled at the soft and hard surfaces: the coupling occurs at the interface between free space and chiral medium. Reflection coefficients are calculated and the polarisation properties of the reflected field are studied. The soft and hard surfaces coated with chiral medium can be used for applications such as polarisation transformers and twist reflectors.