title: General theory of sub-quarterwave multilayers with highly absorbing materials.
abstract: A general theory of multilayers with enhanced reflectance has been developed based on the superposition of sub-quarterwave layers of various highly radiation-absorbing materials. The theory has been developed by second-order expansion of the multilayer reflectance with respect to the optical-constant differences between the materials in the multilayer. The current paper completes and improves the theory that was developed in a previous paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 18, 1406 (2001)] by including the case of nonnormal incidence and general radiation polarization and by providing more-accurate film thickness values of the optimized multilayer than with the previous theory. The theory provides an accurate approach to the design of a new concept of multilayer coatings with more than two materials. The new multilayers are adequate to enhance the reflectance of the materials particularly in the far and the extreme ultraviolet.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física Aplicada-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, Spain. larruquert@io.csic.es
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Larruquert