Abstract

It was shown that Kogelnik's coupling constant,¹ proportional to the product of refractive-index modulation and number of layers can be a useful parameter in comparative analysis of diffraction efficiency and bandwidth of different Bragg-Lippmann structures including holographic Lippmann reflection filters,^2,3 dielectric multilayers, rugate filters, etc. In particular, in the case of dielectric multilayers, the refractive-index modulation is relatively high while the number of layers is relatively low, while for Lippmann holograms, the situation is exactly opposite (number of layers even up to 500). In this paper the basic parameters of Bragg-Lippmann structures such as diffraction efficiency, bandwidth, spectral characteristics profile, refractive-index profile, Bragg wavelength range, and Bragg wavelength nonuniformity are discussed from the point of view of material effects including material scattering/absorption, local defects, and scattering on interfaces. The analysis results are used to verify possible broadband and narrowband energy-related applications. Also, the possible hybrid systems are considered.

© 1985 Optical Society of America