Optical propagation through anisotropic metamaterials: Application to metallo-dielectric stacks

We perform numerical simulations to compare the Berreman matrix method using effective medium results for an anisotropic material with exact calculations of a multi-layer metallo-dielectric stack using the transfer matrix method and finite element techniques. Results are given for a wide band of wavelengths and incident angles. For fixed sample thickness the number of layers is increased to study convergence of the optical characteristics (transmittance and reflectance). It is shown that the Berreman matrix method with effective medium results for an anisotropic material provides a fast and reliable estimate of the optical characteristics of the composite material. The Berreman technique readily leads to the transfer function matrix for propagation in anisotropic materials.