Focusing of dipole radiation by a negative index chiral layer. 1. A thick layer as compared with the wavelength

We have derived and investigated the analytical expressions for the fields of scattered radiation of an electric dipole source by a chiral (bi-isotropic) layer with arbitrary permittivity and permeability and arbitrary thickness. It is shown that in the negative-index chiral layer the focus spot of dipole radiation is split due to excitation of right- and left-hand circularly polarised waves. The conditions are found under which the waves with one of the polarisations can be suppressed, which leads to a substantial improvement of the focusing properties of the chiral layer.