Electrodynamics of nonlocal bounded dielectrics

Abstract

We investigated the electrodynamics of a bounded nonlocal medium, characterized by the non-translationally invariant susceptibility introduced by Zeyher, Birman, and Brenig. We obtained dispersion equations for the propagating and surface modes, as well as the extinction theorems, and additional boundary conditions appropriate to this susceptibility. The calculation was carried out for various angles of incidence, and polarizations leading to different reflectivities than in other work using a translationally invariant susceptibility. We also derived a new surface polariton dispersion equation. An analysis of an attenuated-total-reflection experiment shows that the new dispersion equation predicts altered reflectivities from those predicted by competing theories.