1102 CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 8, No. 11 / Novemb er 10, 2010
Study of a narrowband reflection f ilter with multi-channels
Hongfei Jiao (焦焦焦宏宏宏飞飞飞)
1,2∗
, Tao Ding (丁丁丁 涛涛涛)
1
, Xinbin Cheng (程程程鑫鑫鑫彬彬彬)
1
,
Bin Ma (马马马 彬彬彬)
1,2
, Pengfei He (贺贺贺鹏鹏鹏飞飞飞)
2
, and Yonggang Wu (吴吴吴永永永刚刚刚)
1
1
Institute of Precision Optical Engineering, Department of Physics, Tong ji University, Shanghai 200092, China
2
Scho ol of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
∗
E-mail: jiaohf@tong ji.edu.cn
Received March 3, 2010
Reflection filters have various applications in optical communication and other systems. In this letter,
we propose a narrowband high-reflection filter composed of dielectric and metallic layers, in which an
optimized filter combined with an admittance-matching layer with broad stop band is achieved. The
structure can be expressed as Sub | (HL)
13
H2L(HL)
3
13Cr0.84H | air, with full-width at half-maximum
(FWHM) bandwidth of 2.5 nm. Based on this structure, reflection filters with multi-peaks are presented,
and the law of distribution of p eak positions is drawn.
OCIS co des: 310.6860, 230.7408, 220.0220.
doi: 10.3788/COL20100811.1102.
Interference filters have a huge prospect of being applied
in the fields of optical communication, space engineer-
ing, industrial detection
[1−6]
, and so on. Filters with
multiple channels are especially fascinating in a dense
wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system; such
filters are called transmittance filters. Likewise, reflec-
tion filters also have various applications in fields such
as special photography and communication systems
[7,8]
.
Considerable research has been done on the design and
fabrication of reflection filter. For instance, Thelen pro-
posed an all-dielectric minus filter
[9]
, while Wang et al.
presented a multi-peak reflection filter using guided res-
onant gratings
[10]
. Sheng et al. designed a reflection
filter by alternately superimp osing metal and dielec-
tric layers
[11]
, and Robin et al. produced a reflectance
filter with a metal/dielectric/metal structure
[7,12]
. How-
ever, these filters are difficult to fabricate because of
their complicated non-period structures. Sun et al. re-
cently proposed a new structure by adding one metal
layer to a period dielectric film stack, which is easier to
fabricate
[13,14]
.
In this letter, a new structure based on Sun’s model
is proposed; it has improved spectral characteristics
through the addition of a suitable matching layer. In
addition, further investigation on multi-channel and in-
tegrated reflection filters is carried out.
We chose the structure Sub | (HL)
7
H2L(HL)
3
αCr |
air, which was proposed by Sun et al.
[13]
, as the starting
structure for optimization. In the structure, Sub means
substrate, H represents a dielectric layer (TiO
2
) with as-
sumed high refractive index value of 2.16; L is a dielectric
layer (SiO
2
) with assumed low refractive index value of
1.46; the optical thickness of the corresponding layer is
equal to one quarter of the desired central wavelength.
We assume that the refractive index for the substrate is
1.52. The refractive indices of Cr are adopted from the
handbo ok of Palik
[15]
and are described in Table 1. The
physical thickness of the metal Cr layer is represented by
α. The designed wavelength is 700 nm.
The structure (HL)
m
H2L(HL)
n
is similar to the Fabry-
Perot (F-P) mirror, which we call quasi-F-P in this let-
ter. Assuming (HL)
m
H and (HL)
n
to be the first and
the second mirrors, respectively, they play different roles
in the filter; this has been discussed in part in previous
studies
[14,16]
. Figure 1(a) shows the reflectance spectra,
wherein n is equal to 3 with different m values of 6, 7, 8,
and 9. Figure 1(b) shows the case of fixed m = 6 with
varying n values of 2, 3, 4, and 5. Figure 1(c) shows the
case of fixed m = 9 with varying n values of 2, 3, 4, and
5. The insets are enlarged drawing of the peaks. The
result shows that there is a need to increase the value
of m in order to improve the height of the peaks. It
is also shown that the bandwidth will become narrower
when the value of n is increased. However, the value of
n cannot be too big; it should be less than the value of
m to maintain a sufficiently high reflectance at the cen-
tral wavelength. Moreover, with increasing value of n,
the curve distributed around the central wavelength will
become more unstable, leading to a poor cut-off band.
Thus, there is a need to choose a suitable parameter to
achieve the required results.
Figure 2 shows the reflectance and absorptance spectra
of the filter: Sub | (HL)
7
H2L(HL)
3
αCr | air; the inset is
an enlarged drawing of the peaks. It can be seen that the
reflectance curve of the stop band b ecomes flatter as the
thickness of the Cr layer increases. However, the height of
the reflectance at the central wavelength remains almost
unchangs. It can also be seen that the absorptance at the
central wavelength is kept at the minimum throughout,
while the other curves around the central wavelength
become flatter. From these observations, it can be said
that there is a need to find the suitable thickness of
the Cr layer that will enable the filter to have a better
Table 1. Refractive Index n and Extinction
Coefficient k of Cr Thin Films
Wavelength (nm) 490.1 512.3 532.1 558.5 582.1
n 2.49 2.75 2.98 3.18 3.34
k 4.44 4.46 4.45 4.41 4.38
Wavelength (nm) 610.8 700.5 815.7 826.6 849.2
n 3.48 3.84 4.23 4.27 4.31
k 4.36 4.37 4.34 4.33 4.32
1671-7694/2010/111102-04
c
° 2010 Chinese Optics Letters