Propagation in bianisotropic media — reflection and transmission

Abstract

A systematic analysis for solving the wave propagation problem in a general bianisotropic, stratified medium is presented. The method utilises the concept of propagators, and the representation of these operators is simplified by introducing the Cayley–Hamilton theorem. The propagators propagate the total tangential electric and magnetic fields in the slab and only outside the slab do the up- and down-going parts of the fields need to be identified. This procedure makes the physical interpretation of the theory intuitive. The reflection and the transmission dyadics for a general bianisotropic medium with an isotropic (vacuum) half-space on both sides of the slab are presented in a co-ordinate-independent dyadic notation, as well as the reflection dyadic for a bianisotropic slab with perfectly electric backing (PEC). In the latter case the current on the metal backing is also given. Some numerical computations that illustrate the algorithm are presented.