Electromagnetic plane–wave response characteristics of non–axially excited slabs of dielectric thin–film helicoidal bianisotropic mediums

Thin-film helicoidal bianisotropic mediums (TFHBMs) are rotationally non-homogeneous mediums whose microstructure consists of parallel helical columns. We characterize here the plane-wave response of non-axially excited dielectric TFHBM slabs. The constitutive relations for the dielectric TFHBMs are substituted into the time-harmonic Maxwell curl equations, and a 4 × 4 matrix ordinary differential equation is obtained. The piecewise homogeneity approximation method is shown to be reasonably robust to solve the differential equation. Bragg reflection by non-axially excited dielectric TFHBM slabs is investigated, and transmission characteristics are examined. The effects of several key illumination and constitutive parameters on the response of non-axially excited dielectric TFHBM slabs are studied to elucidate trends in functional relationships. A TFHBM bilayer is presented as an example of a device based on non-axially excited dielectric TFHBMs.