Birefringent thin films and polarizing elements

Birefringent Thin Films and Polarizing Elements (2nd Edition) includes the significant advances that have been made since the first book on tilted-columnar films was published. The major discovery of serial bideposition has led to a normal-columnar nanostructure with enhanced birefringence and in turn to nanoengineered handed films with properties matching the left-circular reflectors of scarab beetles. A second version of the Matlab software that accompanies the book includes algorithms for computing material, electromagnetic and optical properties of isotropic, birefringent and chiral films. A set of numerical and experimental examples chosen to illustrate and generate interest in these new fields will be of interest to graduate students and to researchers in optics.

1. Introduction. 1.1. Structural classification of crystals. 1.2. Optical classification of crystals. 1.3. Structure of birefringent films. 1.4. Optical classification of birefringent films. 1.5. Layout of the book -- pt. 1. Propagation in biaxial media. 2. Propagation equations. 2.1. Maxwell's equations. 2.2. Propagation in free space. Mathematical methods. 2.3. Propagation in isotropic media. 2.4. Propagation in anisotropic media. 2.5. Energy flow. 2.6. Notation for biaxial media. 2.7. Propagation in a common direction in a biaxial medium -- 3. Basis vectors. 3.1. Partially coherent states. 3.2. Coherent states. 3.3. Propagation in layered biaxial media -- 4. Transfer matrices. 4.1. Mueller calculus. 4.2. Jones calculus. 4.3. Relationship of Mueller calculus and Jones calculus. 4.4. Berreman calculus. 4.5. Abeles and heavens calculus. 4.6. Film and toolbox structures. 4.7. Relationship of Jones and Berreman calculus -- 5. Reflection and transmission. 5.1. General case -- all media biaxial. 5.2. Sorting columns of [symbol]. 5.3. Isotropic cover and substrate. 5.4. All media isotropic. 5.5. Computations using the BTF toolbox. 5.6. Stokes vectors and Mueller matrices for optical co…