The electromagnetic inverse scattering problem for layered dispersionless dielectrics

The problem of exactly reconstructing the one-dimensional refractive index profile of a dispersionless dielectric from reflection data is considered. The available data consist of reflection coefficient measurements at many wavenumbers due to a normally incident electromagnetic plane wave upon a dielectric half-space or equivalently the impulse response measurement of the half-space. A closed-form analytical technique is described and applied to several solutions. These solutions are compared with results from a numerical method that uses leapfrogging in space and time and other analytical methods. Finally, the robustness of this technique with respect to imprecise and bandlimited data is examined and compared with a previous result.