The theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in magnetic multilayers

Abstract

Presents a theory of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation through magnetic multilayers and superlattices based on the propagation matrix P of a magnetic film. By using this matrix P, the authors obtained the transmission and reflection coefficients of layered magnetic media, including semi-infinite magnetic surfaces, magnetic multilayers and semi-infinite magnetic superlattices. The numerical results show that the EM modes of a magnetic layer system are excited and manifested as the sharp dips in the s-polarized reflection and the dispersion curves of magnetic polaritons can be measured by a method similar to the attenuated total reflection technique. The analytic dispersion relations of magnetic polaritons for arbitrary magnetic multilayer systems are represented by the matrix P.