Plasmon excitation in periodic multilayers: modeling by boundary integral equations

Optical diffraction is one of the few exploited applications of boundary integral equations. In this paper, a numerical model based on boundary integral equations (BIE) is applied to a periodic multilayer. We present possible implementations of a derived algorithm that enables solution, e.g., for over-coated profiles. We give our attention to optical systems producing plasmon waves, for which we study the influence of several structural parameters on the diffraction response. The results are compared with the classical rigorous coupled waves method (RCWM) method, and, the case of non-smooth interface is discussed.