Multiply an arbitrary number of matrices an arbitrary number of times - matlab

Question

I have found several questions/answers for vectorizing and speeding up routines for multiplying a matrix and a vector in a single loop, but I am trying to do something a little more general, namely multiplying an arbitrary number of matrices together, and then performing that operation an arbitrary number of times.
I am writing a general routine for calculating thin-film reflection from an arbitrary number of layers vs optical frequency. For each optical frequency W each layer has an index of refraction N and an associated 2x2 transfer matrix L and 2x2 interface matrix I which depends on the index of refraction and the thickness of the layer. If n is the number of layers, and m is the number of frequencies, then I can vectorize the index into an n x m matrix, but then in order to calculate the reflection at each frequency, I have to do nested loops. Since I am ultimately using this as part of a fitting routine, anything I can do to speed it up would be greatly appreciated.
This should provide a minimum working example:
W = 1260:0.1:1400; %frequency in cm^-1
N = rand(4,numel(W))+1i*rand(4,numel(W)); %dummy complex index of refraction
D = [0 0.1 0.2 0]/1e4; %thicknesses in cm
[n,m] = size(N);
r = zeros(size(W));
for x = 1:m %loop over frequencies
C = eye(2); % first medium is air
for y = 2:n %loop over layers
na = N(y-1,x);
nb = N(y,x);
%I = InterfaceMatrix(na,nb); % calculate the 2x2 interface matrix
I = [1 na*nb;na*nb 1]; % dummy matrix
%L = TransferMatrix(nb) % calculate the 2x2 transfer matrix
L = [exp(-1i*nb*W(x)*D(y)) 0; 0 exp(+1i*nb*W(x)*D(y))]; % dummy matrix
C = C*I*L;
end
a = C(1,1);
c = C(2,1);
r(x) = c/a; % reflectivity, the answer I want.
end
Running this twice for two different polarizations for a three layer (air/stuff/substrate) problem with 2562 frequencies takes 0.952 seconds while solving the exact same problem with the explicit formula (vectorized) for a three layer system takes 0.0265 seconds. The problem is that beyond 3 layers, the explicit formula rapidly becomes intractable and I would have to have a different subroutine for each number of layers while the above is completely general.
Is there hope for vectorizing this code or otherwise speeding it up?
(edited to add that I've left several things out of the code to shorten it, so please don't try to use this to actually calculate reflectivity)
Edit: In order to clarify, I and L are different for each layer and for each frequency, so they change in each loop. Simply taking the exponent will not work. For a real world example, take the simplest case of a soap bubble in air. There are three layers (air/soap/air) and two interfaces. For a given frequency, the full transfer matrix C is:
C = L_air * I_air2soap * L_soap * I_soap2air * L_air;
and I_air2soap ~= I_soap2air. Thus, I start with L_air = eye(2) and then go down successive layers, computing I_(y-1,y) and L_y, multiplying them with the result from the previous loop, and going on until I get to the bottom of the stack. Then I grab the first and third values, take the ratio, and that is the reflectivity at that frequency. Then I move on to the next frequency and do it all again.
I suspect that the answer is going to somehow involve a block-diagonal matrix for each layer as mentioned below.

Answer 1

Not next to a matlab, so that's only a starter,
Instead of the double loop you can write na*nb as Nab=N(1:end-1,:).*N(2:end,:);
The term in the exponent nb*W(x)*D(y) can be written as e=N(2:end,:)*W'*D;
The result of I*L is a 2x2 block matrix that has this form:
M = [1, Nab; Nab, 1]*[e-, 0;0, e+] = [e- , Nab*e+ ; Nab*e- , e+]
with e- as exp(-1i*e), and e+ as exp(1i*e)'
see kron on how to get the block matrix form, to vectorize the propagation C=C*I*L just take M^n

Answer 2

#Lama put me on the right path by suggesting block matrices, but the ultimate answer ended up being more complicated, and so I put it here for posterity. Since the transfer and interface matrix is different for each layer, I leave in the loop over the layers, but construct a large sparse block matrix where each block represents a frequency.
W = 1260:0.1:1400; %frequency in cm^-1
N = rand(4,numel(W))+1i*rand(4,numel(W)); %dummy complex index of refraction
D = [0 0.1 0.2 0]/1e4; %thicknesses in cm
[n,m] = size(N);
r = zeros(size(W));
C = speye(2*m); % first medium is air
even = 2:2:2*m;
odd = 1:2:2*m-1;
for y = 2:n %loop over layers
na = N(y-1,:);
nb = N(y,:);
% get the reflection and transmission coefficients from subroutines as a vector
% of length m, one value for each frequency
%t = Tab(na, nb);
%r = Rab(na, nb);
t = rand(size(W)); % dummy vector for MWE
r = rand(size(W)); % dummy vector for MWE
% create diagonal and off-diagonal elements. each block is [1 r;r 1]/t
Id(even) = 1./t;
Id(odd) = Id(even);
Io(even) = 0;
Io(odd) = r./t;
It = [Io;Id/2].';
I = spdiags(It,[-1 0],2*m,2*m);
I = I + I.';
b = 1i.*(2*pi*D(n).*nb).*W;
B(even) = -b;
B(odd) = b;
L = spdiags(exp(B).',0,2*m,2*m);
C = C*I*L;
end
a = spdiags(C,0);
a = a(odd).';
c = spdiags(C,-1);
c = c(odd).';
r = c./a; % reflectivity, the answer I want.
With the 3 layer system mentioned above, it isn't quite as fast as the explicit formula, but it's close and probably can get a little faster after some profiling. The full version of the original code clocks at 0.97 seconds, the formula at 0.012 seconds and the sparse diagonal version here at 0.065 seconds.