Prediction of Effective Optical Properties of Stratified Medium Beyond the Quasistatic Limit

Most of the previous approximations to predict the effective dielectric constant of composites apply to the quasistatic (long-wavelength) regime. Recently, Torquato and Kim [PRX 11, 021002 (2021)] derived exact nonlocal formulas for the effective dynamic dielectric constant tensor for general two-phase microstructures using the "strong-contrast" expansion formalism that is applicable down to intermediate wavelengths. In the previous work, however, accurate approximation formulas were obtained for isotropic media. Here we extract the corresponding formula for stratified microstructures in three dimensions. Similar to the previous approximations, this approximation is a rational function that depends on certain integrals involving the two-point correlation function or its Fourier counterpart (i.e., spectral density), and hence, accounts for the multiple scattering to all orders. We apply our new formulas to a variety of hyperuniform and nonhyperuniform disordered stratified media. Our theoretical results compare favorably to full-waveform simulations. We show that light in hyperuniform systems, particularly stealthy hyperuniform ones, experiences exceptionally lower loss than their nonhyperuniform counterparts.