title: Optical coatings with an integral FTIR air layer.
abstract: The use of solid frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) layers to control the polarization effects in optical coatings usually results in large substrate sizes and complicated designs. To overcome this problem, it is proposed to incorporate an air FTIR layer into the multilayer thin film coatings. The low refractive index of air not only helps to reduce the substrate sizes, but also simplifies coating designs or improves the performance. The principle and layer structures of the proposed multilayers are described. Examples of polarizing- and non-polarizing beam-splitters for the infrared spectral region are given. Some practical manufacturing issues are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0R6, Canada. Li.Li@nrc.ca
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dobrowolski
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007909:Lenses; D008420:Manufactured Materials; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018511:Systems Integration
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial