Some remarks on enhanced total internal reflection

Abstract

The regime of total internal reflection of plane wave on the boundary between a lossless dielectrics and the lossy, or gainy, medium is analysed. It is shown that in order to achieve enhanced total internal reflection (TIR), ie magnitude of the reflection factor larger than one, the existence of the second boundary, virtually maybe infinitely far away, is inevitable. Some contradictory results published in literature are discussed.

Notes on reflection and refraction of evanescent plane waves on the boundary between gainy/lossy media

“…As shown in [9] if one takes into account a second boundary in the half space x > 0 in some distance a from the first boundary, ie second boundary in plane x = a then in the slab 0 < x < a the previous wave E out 2 (r) transmitted from the domain x < 0 through the first boundary, as well as the wave E in 2 (r) reflected on the second boundary, exist. The ratio between E out 2 (r) and E in 2 (r) depends on the properties of medium in the slab.…”