Abstract

In this paper, a novel solution is proposed to the problem dielectric mirrors with high reflectivity. The approach adopted is based on the use of a rectangular, one dimensional grating. It will be shown that these gratings can be designed such that they reflect more than 95 % of the incident optical power in a wide variety of material systems. This solution could prove superior to the classical DBR-stack approach for the following reasons :• In a number of material systems (e.g. InGaAsP), refractive index contrasts are low, and the DBR-solution becomes unpractical because of the excessive number of DBR-periods required.• The grating approach does not introduce additional materials, reducing the problems of differential thermal expansion and mechanical stability.

© 1996 Optical Society of America