supermirrors

Supermirrors are a type of optical component used in various applications, including lasers, telescopes, and interferometers. They are designed to reflect a specific wavelength of light while transmitting or absorbing other wavelengths. This selective reflection is achieved through the use of thin-film coatings applied to a substrate, typically made of glass or quartz.

The most common type of supermirror is the dichroic mirror, which reflects light of one color while transmitting light of another color. This is accomplished by depositing multiple layers of different materials, each with a thickness of a fraction of the wavelength of light they are designed to reflect or transmit. The layers are chosen based on their refractive indices, which determine how they interact with light of different wavelengths.

Supermirrors are used in a variety of applications, including beam splitters in interferometers, where they divide a beam of light into two or more paths, and in lasers, where they reflect the laser light back and forth through the gain medium to amplify it. They are also used in telescopes to separate different wavelengths of light for analysis.

The performance of a supermirror is characterized by several parameters, including its reflectivity, transmissivity, and bandwidth. Reflectivity refers to the fraction of incident light that is reflected, while transmissivity refers to the fraction that is transmitted. Bandwidth refers to the range of wavelengths over which the mirror reflects or transmits light.

Supermirrors are typically manufactured using techniques such as physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition, which allow for precise control over the thickness and composition of the thin-film coatings. The choice of materials and the number of layers can be optimized to meet the specific requirements of a given application.