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.Contents:IntroductionPropagation in Biaxial Media:Propagation EquationsBasis VectorsTransfer MatricesReflection and TransmissionGuided WavesCharacterization of Anisotropic Films:Deposition of Basic NanostructuresForm BirefringenceHanded MediaContinuum MethodsEffective MediaAnisotropic ScatterFluid TransportMetal FilmsApplications of Birefringent Media:Linear PolarizersPhase RetardersBirefringent FiltersCoating ArchitecturesAppendices:PS SamplerBirefringent Thin Films ToolboxReadership: Graduate students and researchers in optics.Key Features:Mueller calculus, Jones calculus, and Berreman calculus are developed in parallel, with chapters devoted to propagation, basis vectors and transfer matricesTwo new chapters provide major additions to the first edition of the book. Handed Media describes the optical properties of nanoengineered and natural chiral coatings with many photographs illustrating the beautiful colours and unique polarizing properties of scarab beetlesContinuum Methods provides a powerful and elegant means of describing the reflection and transmission characteristics of periodic, particularly chiral thin films