Determination of the spectral-dependent refractive index of a single layer in a natural multilayer system: Comparison of different approaches

Abstract

By means of heuristic optimization techniques, we estimate the unknown refractive index of one layer of a periodic natural multilayer system from far-field reflectance data. To take into account the dispersive characteristics of the material, we employ two different strategies. The first is based on the retrieval of Lorentz model-related parameters, to describe the unknown dielectric permittivity within a specific spectral range. The second strategy, based on a wavelength-by-wavelength approach, takes into account the reflectance values for each wavelength at a time. Through some examples, we compare the performance of both strategies when they look for the best estimates and analyze the error involved in each case. The applicability of both approaches to the case of noisy reflectance spectra is also explored.