Focusing of dipole radiation by a negative index chiral layer. 1. A thick layer as compared with the wavelength

We have derived and investigated the analytical expressions for the fields of scattered radiation of an electric dipole source by a chiral (bi-isotropic) layer with arbitrary permittivity and permeability and arbitrary thickness. It is shown that in the negativeindex chiral layer the focus spot of dipole radiation is split due to excitation of right- and left-hand circularly polarised waves. The conditions are found under which the waves with one of the polarisations can be suppressed, which leads to a substantial improvement of the focusing properties of the chiral layer. (metamaterials)