Abstract

Antireflective surfaces have been the subject of a great amount of research. Typically, thin-film coatings are used to reduce or eliminate reflection losses, but in certain cases design constraints limit this method's practicality. In recent years, surface-relief gratings have been shown to offer a practical alternative. In the high-frequency limit, where all orders but the zeroth order reflected and transmitted waves are evanescent, surface- relief gratings exhibit extremely low reflectivities. This discovery is useful for many applications, including the design of photodetectors, solar cells, and IR optical systems.

© 1990 Optical Society of America