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Main Authors: Krock, Edward H., Ali, Mughaid, Weng, Haizhong, Smith, C. M., Donegan, John F.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02377
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author Krock, Edward H.
Ali, Mughaid
Weng, Haizhong
Smith, C. M.
Donegan, John F.
author_facet Krock, Edward H.
Ali, Mughaid
Weng, Haizhong
Smith, C. M.
Donegan, John F.
contents The Brewster angle is a well-known phenomenon that describes the angle dependent reflection minimum resulting from the difference in the refractive index between two media for p-polarized light. From multipole decomposition, we show this well-known Brewster angle for the electric dipole term, but also new Brew ster angles for the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic quadrupole terms for p-and s-polarizations. Our new equations show that the complex dipole and quadrupole moments must become real valued for the Brewster angle to occur. After applying our new theory to the reflection of a thin-dielectric SiN film, we identify a previously undiscovered interference effect required to observe the Brewster angle in thin films, the destructive interference between magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole terms. The electric dipole Brewster angle occurs for all wavelengths studied but those of the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole and magnetic quadrupole occur over a very narrow wavelength range.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_02377
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New Physics of Dipole and Quadrupole Brewster Angles in Thin Films
Krock, Edward H.
Ali, Mughaid
Weng, Haizhong
Smith, C. M.
Donegan, John F.
Optics
The Brewster angle is a well-known phenomenon that describes the angle dependent reflection minimum resulting from the difference in the refractive index between two media for p-polarized light. From multipole decomposition, we show this well-known Brewster angle for the electric dipole term, but also new Brew ster angles for the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic quadrupole terms for p-and s-polarizations. Our new equations show that the complex dipole and quadrupole moments must become real valued for the Brewster angle to occur. After applying our new theory to the reflection of a thin-dielectric SiN film, we identify a previously undiscovered interference effect required to observe the Brewster angle in thin films, the destructive interference between magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole terms. The electric dipole Brewster angle occurs for all wavelengths studied but those of the magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole and magnetic quadrupole occur over a very narrow wavelength range.
title New Physics of Dipole and Quadrupole Brewster Angles in Thin Films
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02377