Supersymmetry, Half-Bound States, And Grazing Incidence Reflection

Electromagnetic waves at grazing incidence onto a planar medium are analogous to zero energy quantum particles incident onto a potential well. In this limit waves are typically completely reflected. Here we explore dielectric profiles supporting optical analogues of 'half-bound states', allowing for zero reflection at grazing incidence. To obtain these profiles we use two different theoretical approaches: supersymmetric quantum mechanics, and direct inversion of the Helmholtz equation, showing that discretized approximations to these profiles exhibit low reflectivity close to grazing incidence.