Design of optical path for wide-angle gradient-index antireflection coatings.

What we believe to be a new principle is introduced for the design and selection of gradient-index antireflection profiles that are effective over a wide range of incident angles as well as wavelengths at a given physical film thickness. It is shown that at oblique incidence the smoothness of the optical path of incident light inside a gradient-index film has a crucial effect on the overall reflection. Thus the smoothness of variations in refractive angle (rather than that of the index profile itself) needs to be maximized for wide-angle operation. As an example, the performance of Gaussian and Quintic profiles at large incident angles are considered in light of this point of view.

[1]  J A Dobrowolski,et al.  Refractive index as a variable in the numerical design of optical thin film systems. , 1982, Applied optics.

[2]  Jong Kyu Kim,et al.  Very low-refractive-index optical thin films consisting of an array of SiO2 nanorods. , 2006, Optics letters.

[3]  Daniel Poitras,et al.  Toward perfect antireflection coatings. 2. Theory. , 2004, Applied optics.

[4]  W H Southwell,et al.  Gradient-index antireflection coatings. , 1983, Optics letters.

[5]  Michael Jay Minot.  The angluar reflectance of single-layer gradient refractive-index films , 1977 .

[6]  Penghui Ma,et al.  Toward perfect antireflection coatings: numerical investigation. , 2002, Applied optics.

[7]  W H Southwell,et al.  Coating design using very thin high- and low-index layers. , 1985, Applied optics.

[8]  M. Hutley,et al.  Reduction of Lens Reflexion by the “Moth Eye” Principle , 1973, Nature.

[9]  J A Dobrowolski,et al.  Fourier-transform method for the design of wideband antireflection coatings. , 1992, Applied optics.

[10]  Double-layer broadband antireflection coatings for grazing incidence angles. , 1992, Applied optics.

[11]  Anti-reflection Coatings for Grazing Incidence Angles , 1989 .

[12]  R. Jacobsson,et al.  V Light Reflection from Films of Continuously Varying Refractive Index , 1966 .

[13]  Drew A. Pommet,et al.  Optimal design for antireflective tapered two-dimensional subwavelength grating structures , 1995 .

[14]  P Yeh,et al.  Optical properties of stratified media with exponentially graded refractive index. , 1983, Applied optics.

[15]  W. Southwell,et al.  Broadband gradient-index antireflection coating for ZnSe. , 1984, Applied optics.

[16]  Volker Wittwer,et al.  Glazing with very high solar transmittance , 1998 .

[17]  R Feder,et al.  Graded-index AR surfaces produced by ion implantation on plastic materials. , 1980, Applied optics.

[18]  K. Hane,et al.  High efficient light-emitting diodes with antireflection subwavelength gratings , 2002, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.