A Green's function based analytical method for forward and inverse modeling of quasi-periodic nanostructured surfaces

We present an efficient Green's function based analytical method for forward but particularly also for the inverse modeling of light scattering by quasi-periodic and aperiodic surface nanostructures. In the forward modeling, good agreement over an important texture amplitude range is achieved between the developed formalism and exact rigorous calculations on the one hand and angle resolved light scattering measurements of complex quasi-periodic SiO₂-Au nanopatterned interfaces on the other hand. Exploiting our formalism, we demonstrate for the first time how the inverse problem of quasi-periodic surface textures for a desired multiresonant absorption response can be expressed in terms of coupled systems of multivariate polynomial equations of the height profile's Fourier amplitudes. A good estimate of the required surface profile can thus be obtained in a computationally cheap manner via solving the multivariate polynomial equations. In principle, the inverse modeling formalism introduced here can be implemented in conjunction with any scattering model that provides expressions of the coupling coefficients between different modes in terms of the surface texture height profile.