Abstract
The design, fabrication, and characterization of abrupt interface and graded interface distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) multilayers is reported. Electron-beam deposited zinc selenide (ZnSe) and Barium Fluoride (BaF2) thin films were chosen as the high and low refractive index dielectric materials respectively, for the DBRs in the mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) region. In this region, DBRs comprised of 3 stacks of abrupt interface ZnSe and BaF2 thin films with central wavelength of 4 µm were found to suffer from defects and absorption loss that later affect the optical transmission and spectral resolution of assembled Fabry-Pérot optical filters. Interfacial grading of the DBRs with a thin layer of amorphous silicon monoxide (SiO) ~ 80 nm, reduced the absorption loss and the interdiffusion of defect atoms at the interface between alternating layers. Fabry-Pérot filters assembled from abrupt interface DBRs showed 22% optical transmission, whereas those assembled from graded interface DBRs acheived 26.5% optical transmission. The Full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of the transmission peak for graded interface Fabry-Pérot optical filter decreased significantly compared to the abrupt interface optical filter, improving its spectral resolution.
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The authors would like to acknowledge Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. for funding this work.
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Admassu, D., Durowade, T., Sellers, R. et al. Effect of interface grading on the optical performance of distributed Bragg reflector multilayers in Fabry-Pérot optical filters. Microsyst Technol 27, 2785–2790 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-020-05063-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-020-05063-6