Omnidirectional reflector
AssigneesToyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
InventorsBenjamin Alan Grayson, Debasish Banerjee, Minjuan Zhang, Masahiko Ishii
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Abstract
An omnidirectional reflector that reflects a band of electromagnetic radiation of less than 100 nanometers when viewed from angles between 0 and 45 degrees is provided. The omnidirectional reflector includes a multilayer stack having a plurality of layers of high index of refraction material and a plurality of layers of low index of refraction material. In addition, the plurality of high index of refraction material layers and low index of refraction material layers are alternately stacked on top of or across each other and provide a non-periodic layered structure.
Claims21
An omnidirectional reflector comprising:
- a multilayer stack having a plurality of layers of high index of refraction material H1, H2, H3 . . . Hn and a plurality of layers of low index of refraction material L1, L2, L3 . . . Lm, said plurality of layers of high index of refraction material and plurality of layers of low index of refraction material alternately stacked on top of each other;
- said plurality of layers of high index of refraction material and plurality of layers of low index of refraction material each having a predefined thickness of dH1, dH2, dH3 . . . dHn and dL1, dL2, dL3 . . . dLm, respectively, and said dH1 thickness not generally equal to said dH2, dH3 . . . or dHn thickness and said dL1 thickness not generally equal to said dL2, dL3 . . . or dLm thickness such that a said multilayer stack has a non-periodic layered structure;
- and
- wherein said multilayer stack has an omnidirectional band of less than 100 nanometers when viewed from angles between 0 degrees and 45 degrees.
A process for omnidirectionally reflecting a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation, the process comprising:
- providing a multilayer stack having a plurality of layers of high index of refraction material H1, H2, H3 . . . Hn and a plurality of layers of low index of refraction material L1, L2, L3 . . . Lm alternately stacked on top of each other;
- the plurality of layers of high index of refraction material and the plurality of layers of low index of refraction material each having a predefined thickness of dH1, dH2, dH3 . . . dHn, and dL1, dL2, dL3 . . . dLm, respectively, and the dH1 thickness is not generally equal to the dH2, dH3 . . . or dHn thickness and the dL1 thickness is not generally equal to the dL2, dL3 . . . or dLm thickness such that the multilayer stack has a non-periodic layered structure;
- providing a source of broadband electromagnetic radiation;
- exposing the multilayer stack to the source of broadband electromagnetic radiation;
- and
- reflecting an omnidirectional band of less than 100 nanometers of the electromagnetic radiation with the multilayer stack when viewed from angles between 0 degrees and 45 degrees.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.