New Physics of Dipole and Quadrupole Brewster Angles in Thin Films

TL;DR

This paper extends the understanding of Brewster angles by deriving new conditions for magnetic and quadrupole contributions, revealing a previously unknown interference effect in thin films that influences polarization-dependent reflection minima.

Contribution

It introduces new Brewster angle equations for multipole moments and uncovers an interference effect critical for observing these angles in thin dielectric films.

Findings

New Brewster angles for magnetic dipole and quadrupole moments derived.

Identification of destructive interference between magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole terms.

Electric dipole Brewster angle observed across all studied wavelengths.

Abstract

The Brewster angle is a well-known phenomenon that describes the angle dependent reflection minimum resulting from the difference in the refractive index between two media for p-polarized light. From multipole decomposition, we show this well-known Brewster angle for the electric dipole term, but also new Brew ster angles for the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic quadrupole terms for p-and s-polarizations. Our new equations show that the complex dipole and quadrupole moments must become real valued for the Brewster angle to occur. After applying our new theory to the reflection of a thin-dielectric SiN film, we identify a previously undiscovered interference effect required to observe the Brewster angle in thin films, the destructive interference between magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole terms. The electric dipole Brewster angle occurs for all wavelengths studied but those of the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole and magnetic quadrupole occur over a very narrow wavelength range.