Abstract
The reflection of linearly polarized light from a layered nanoscopic system of anisotropic dielectric films on homogeneous isotropic substrate is investigated in the long-wavelength limit. The expressions for the reflectances and ellipsometric angles of an N-layer system of anisotropic ultrathin films are derived. For absorbing substrate mathematical relationships take a relatively simple additive form. In comparison with absorbing substrate the fully transparent system is more complicated and in this case an ultrathin film in multilayer system is sensitive to the presence of other ultrathin films (an interaction between them emerges) and the contribution of each layer to the reflection coefficient is not expressed in a purely additive form. The analytical results are supported by computer-aided analysis made on the basis of general wave propagation theory for anisotropic layered media. The most useful feature of obtained approximate expressions is that they are simply invertible, allowing a direct calculation of the parameters of ultrathin layers. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2010.167]
