Optics in Stratified Media—The Use of Optical Eigenmodes of Uniaxial Crystals in the 4 × 4-Matrix Formalism

Abstract

Abstract A new method of evaluating the optical properties of stratified uniaxial media is proposed. Within Berreman's 4 × 4 matrix formalism, the exact propagator of a homogeneous layer is used instead of the Taylor series expansion. The calculation of the transmission and reflection matrices for a given propagator is performed. Examples are given to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method.