Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in the Finite Periodically Layered Chiral Medium

Abstract—The transmission and reflection coefficients of electromagnetic waves propagating through the finite periodically layered chiral structure are defined both theoretically (using the propagation matrix method) and experimentally. The coefficients of the propagation matrix of the periodically layered chiral medium are obtained. The boundaries of the forbidden bands for a periodic medium, whose unit cell consists of two different chiral layers were determined. It is shown that the boundaries of the forbidden bands do not depend on the chirality parameter of the layers. It is found that for certain values of the layers thicknesses, the forbidden band widths tend to zero and that the proposed method for calculation of the reflection and transmission coefficients can be used to determine the effective constitutive parameters of artificial chiral metamaterials. The transmission and reflection coefficients of plane electromagnetic waves propagated through the finite periodically layered chiral structure were determined experimentally for 20–40 GHz range. A good agreement between the experimental results and theoretical studies of the forbidden band spectrum for the structure under research has been shown. 1