Effects of polarization on the transmission and localization of classical waves in weakly scattering metamaterials

Abstract

We summarize the results of our comprehensive analytical and numerical studies of the effects of polarization on the Anderson localization of classical waves in one-dimensional random stacks. We consider homogeneous stacks composed entirely of normal materials or metamaterials, and also mixed stacks composed of alternating layers of a normal material and a metamaterial. We extend the theoretical study developed earlier for the case of normal incidence to the case of off-axis incidence. For the general case where both the refractive indices and layer thicknesses are random, we obtain the long-wave and short-wave asymptotics of the localization length over a wide range of incidence angles (including the Brewster "anomaly" angle). At the Brewster angle, we show that the long-wave localization length is proportional to the square of the wavelength, as for the case of normal incidence, but with a proportionality coefficient substantially larger than that for normal incidence. In mixed stacks with only refractive-index disorder, we demonstrate that p -polarized waves are strongly localized, while for s polarization the localization is substantially suppressed, as in the case of normal incidence. In the case of only thickness disorder, we study also the transition from localization to delocalization at the Brewster angle.