Anisotropic antireflection coatings: design and fabrication

We discuss the design and fabrication of coatings that are antireflecting for p -polarized light at normal incidence and are purposely reflecting for s -polarized light. A single birefringent material, such as obliquely deposited zirconium oxide, forms the layers of the coating. Typical experimental results for a six-layer zirconium oxide anisotropic antireflection coating are R(p) = 0.2% and R(s) = 4.9%. Potential applications of the coatings include polarization-selection devices for lasers.