Topological insulators (TIs) exhibit many exotic properties. In particular, a topological magneto-electric (TME) effect, quantized in units of the fine structure constant, exists in TIs. In this Letter, we study theoretically the scattering propertie
s of electromagnetic waves by TI circular cylinders particularly in the Rayleigh scattering limit. Compared with ordinary dielectric cylinders, the scattering by TI cylinders shows many unusual features due to the TME effect. Two proposals are suggested to determine the TME effect of TIs simply based on measuring the electric-field components of scattered waves in the far field at one or two scattering angles. Our results could also offer a way to measure the fine structure constant.
A transfer matrix method is developed for optical calculations of non-interacting graphene layers. Within the framework of this method, optical properties such as reflection, transmission and absorption for single-, double- and multi-layer graphene a
re studied. We also apply the method to structures consisting of periodically arranged graphene layers, revealing well-defined photonic band structures and even photonic bandgaps. Finally, we discuss graphene plasmons and introduce a simple way to tune the plasmon dispersion.
