Finite element numerical investigation of light scattering impact in multilayered stacks

Dielectric multilayers can be designed and fabricated to reach large optical field enhancement when working under total internal reflection. In an objective based total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF-M), we propose to use the resulting large field enhancement supported in such resonant coverslip to improve TIRF-M sensitivity by amplifying the collected fluorescence signal. Scattering effects due to roughness of the substrate may parasite the optical response of our designed multilayer-based component. We present here the numerical model of the roughness impact over the multilayer optical response.