Cylindrical Wave Reflection and Antireflection at Media Interfaces

A transfer-matrix method is used to study cylindrical wave reflection at cylindrical media interfaces. We find that the reflection can be total at an interface of small radius but is only partial if the radius is large. This feature is useful for designing optical sources and receivers of small radii. Cylindrical-wave multi-cylindrical-layer antireflection coatings are also studied. We find that conventional quarter-wavelength layer designs cannot be used for these coatings and new design principles are outlined.