Unified theory of total reflection phenomena at a dielectric interface

Abstract

By utilizing a rigorous plane-wave representation, we investigate the basic wave mechanism that is responsible for both the lateral (Goos-Hänchen) shift of a gaussian light beam incident from a denser medium upon the interface to a rarer medium, and the weak radiance that accompanies the reflected beam. We thus find that the complete reflected field contains a geometric-optics component, whose domain is given by the mirror reflection of the incident beam, as well as a lateral-wave component which occupies a much larger domain. Our results show that the near field of the lateral-wave component interferes with the geometric-optics component and thereby produces the Goos-Hänchen shift of the reflected beam. The intermediate and far fields of the lateral-wave, on the other hand, are responsible for the weak radiance that trails the reflected beam. By demonstrating that both the beam shift and the trailing radiance represent two facets of the same wave process, the lateral-wave field is shown to provide a unified interpretation of two effects that have previously been regarded as separate phenomena. The dependence of these effects on beam width, angle of incidence, and polarization are also considered.