Wave reflection and transmission from a thin film with one-dimensional disorder

Abstract

This paper deals with a TE plane wave reflection and transmission from a thin film with one-dimensional disorder by means of the stochastic functional approach. The relative permittivity of the thin film is written by a Gaussian random field in the horizontal direction with infinite extent, and is uniform in the vertical direction with finite thickness. Arandomwavefield is obtained in terms of a Wiener–Hermite expansion representation with approximate expansion coefficients (Wiener kernels) under a small fluctuation case. For a SiC thin film and a glass thin film having one-dimensional disorder with Gaussian correlation or an exponential correlation, numerical examples of the first-order incoherent scattering cross section and the optical theorem are illustrated in the figures. It is then found that ripples and four major peaks appear in angular distributions of the incoherent scattering. Such four peaks may occur in the directions of forward scattering, specular reflection, backscattering and in the symmetrical direction of forward scattering with respect to the normal to surface of the thin film. Physical processes that yield such ripples and peaks are discussed.