Omnidirectional narrow bandpass filter based on metal-dielectric thin films.

We show that a metal-dielectric Fabry-Perot (FP) structure can exhibit an omnidirectional transmission for p-polarized light, which means a passband is independent of the incidence angle of light. The omnidirectional passband occurs when the sum of the reflection phase shift at the metal-spacer interface and the propagation shift in the spacer region is almost 2pi for every incidence angle. We numerically and experimentally demonstrate such an omnidirectional narrow bandpass filter in an air/Ag/ZnS/Ag/glass structure. Moreover, we introduce an antireflection coating on both sides of the metal-dielectric FP structure. The transmittance will increase obviously, while the omnidirectional property remains the same.

Optical properties and residual stress of YbF3 thin films deposited at different temperatures.

The influence of deposition temperature on the optical properties, microstructure, and residual stress of YbF(3) films, deposited by electron-beam evaporation, has been investigated. The increased refractive indices and surface roughness of YbF(3) films indicate that the film density and columnar structure size increase with deposition temperature. At the same time, higher packing density reduces absorption of moisture. The residual stress is related to deposition temperature and to substrate. For the samples deposited on BK7, the residual stress mainly comes from intrinsic stress, however, for those on fused silica, thermal stress is the dominant factor of total residual stress.