Diffraction Gratings

This chapter derives the equations for the fields associated with reflection and transmission of plane waves incident upon multilayer conformal thin films on a diffraction grating at an arbitrary angle of incidence and polarization. The scattering matrix approach for the method of Chandezon is used to avoid numerical instabilities. Equations for sinusoidal, tilted, and linearly segmented gratings are derived. Examples include surface plasmon resonances and sensors, dielectric waveguide modes and sensors, the far field diffraction pattern from a focused beam on an optical disk, and an approximate calculation of light coupling by a grating into a waveguide.