“Optical Characteristics of multilayered Al2O3- Ti2O3 one dimensional

photonic crystal structure as a suitable material for anti-reflection

coatings “

Vinod Chacko1, Dr.Sonia Bansal2,Dr.M.P.Singh3

1
Department of Applied Science and Humanities , MVN University,Haryana, India
2
Department of Applied Science and Humanities , YMCAUST, Haryana ,India
3
Department of Applied Science and Humanities , Jamia Milia Islamia , Newdelhi

1. ABSTRACT

It is well known that under certain conditions, one dimensional photonic crystal (1D-PC)

displays total Omni-directional reflection (ODR) band gaps. The enhancement of total Omni-

directional reflection band gap in 1D-PC is calculated theoretically. Using Transfer Matrix

Method (TMM) and Bloch theorem, the reflectivity of one dimensional periodic structure for TE

and TM mode at different angles of incidence has been calculated. We study the omnidirectional

reflection (ODR) in one dimensional photonic crystal (PC) structures consisting of alternate

layers of Ti2O3 andAl2 O3. The investigation has also been made for the study the role of ambient

medium and effect of number of layers in the formation of ODR. We also propose the

application of one dimensional multilayered Al2O3- Ti2O3 structure which can be used as a band

stop filter in designed wavelength range and also as a suitable material for making anti-reflection

coatings in the visible region of spectrum.

2. INTRODUCTION

Photonic crystals (PCs), characterized by electromagnetic forbidden bands or photonic band gaps

(PBGs), are regular arrays of materials with different refractive indices. In other words, the

propagation of electromagnetic waves, whose frequencies lie within the PBGs, is prohibited.

Since the concept of was first proposed in 1984 [1,2],PCs have been a hot research topic and

1
have attracted intensive attention [3-13]. PCs are classified mainly into three categories

according to the dimensionality of the stack: one dimensional (1D), two dimensional (2D), and

three dimensional (3D). PCs that work in microwave and far-infrared regions are relatively easier

to fabricate. However, PCs that work in visible and the infrared (IR) regions, especially, 3D PCs

are difficult to fabricate because of their small lattice constants, which have to comparable to the

wavelength[14]. Therefore ,1D PCs, which can easily be produced by the thin film deposition

techniques , are preferable for use in the visible and IR regions. 1D PCs have a wide variety of

applications. For instance, 1D PCs based on dielectric multilayer can be used as planar antennae,

in which complete reflectance at desired frequencies is achieved , due to PBGs; thus , the

emission efficiency is greatly enhanced compared with ordinary planar antennas whose metallic

substrates absorb much energy. Another application is the vertical cavity surface- emitting laser

(VCSEL) [15],which has been recognized as an important light source for parallel optielectronic

systems. Fink et al.have shown theoretically [16] and experimentally [17] that omni-directional

PBGs can be obtained for both transverse- electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM)

polarizations within a IDPC. It offers the possibility of controlling the propagation of light in

1DPCs with a simple structure of multilayers , even for arbitrary incidence.

Oxide films are often employed as components of optical devises in the visible and the IR

regions because of their relatively easy fabrication, high thermal stability, and high resistance

against wear and corrosion, as well as their low absorption. This work reports the reflectivity of

multilayers composed of Ti2O3 and Al2O3 thin films as a 1D PCs .

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 3. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

To calculate the dispersion relation and reflection characteristics for the incident

electromagnetic wave, the Maxwell’s equation is solved numerically by the transfer matrix

method [19]

Fig 1. Periodic refractive index profile of the structure having refractive indices n1 and n2

respectively.

The geometry of the structure under study is shown in the Fig. 1.Consider the

propagation of EM wave along x-axis normal to the interface in one-dimensional system

composed of periodic arrays of two different materials with a refractive index n1 and n2

and layer thickness d1 and d2. The indices of refraction of the system are given

as,

3
 n1 ,0< x < d1
n ( x )=
{
n2 , d 1< x <d 2
with n(x) = n(x + d). (1)

where d1 and d2 are the thicknesses of the layers and d = d1+ d2 is the period of the structure. The

electromagnetic field distribution within each layer can be expressed as the sum of right- and

left-hand side propagating wave. The electric field within the both layers of the nth unit cell can

be written as

−i k 1( x−nd )
[
E1(x) = ( an e ) +bn e i k (x−nd ) ] eiω t
1
(2)

−i k2 (x−nd)
[
E2(x) = ( c n e ) + d n e i k (x−nd ) ] e iωt
2
(3)

1
ni ω 2 2 ni ω
Where k i=
[( ) ]
c
−β
2
=
c
cos θi ;θi is the ray angle in the ith layer (i = 1, 2), β is the

propagation constant and ni is the refractive index of the constituent layers.The coefficients an,

bn, cn, and dn are related through the continuity boundary conditions at the interfaces.

This continuity condition leads to the matrix equations, which relates the coefficient in the first

layer of the nth cell, is given as

an−1 an
( ) ()
b n−1
=Tn
bn
(4)

where Tn is called the transfer matrix given by

4
Tn = ( CA DB ) (5)

The matrix elements A,B,C and D are

1 1
A=e
i k 1 d1
[ ( )
cos k 2 d 2 + i η+ sin k 2 d 2
2 η ] (6)

1 1
B=e
−i k 1 d1
[ ( )
2
i η− sin k 2 d 2
η ] (7)

1 1
C=e
i k 1 d1
[ ( ) ]
− i η− sin k 2 d 2
2 η
(8)

1 1
D=e
−i k 1 d1
[ ( )
cos k 2 d2 − i η+ sin k 2 d 2
2 η ] (9)

The parameter η depends on the polarization. For the TE and TM polarizations, η is given by

k1
ηTE = (10)
k2

and

k 1 n22
ηTM = 2 (11)
k 2 n1

For finite stacks, the coefficient of right and left hand side propagating wave in both sides of the

multilayer structure aN and bN, are calculated by multiplying transfer matrix of each cell as

5
 a0 aN
()
b0
= T1 T2.....TN
bN ( ) (12)

where N is the total number of the cell. The coefficient of reflection is given by solving above

matrix equation with the condition bN = 0 as

b0
rN =() a0
(13)

Thus the reflectivity (or reflectance) of the structure may be calculated as

2
RN = |r N| (14)

Now, according to Bloch theorem, the electric field vector is of the form

E = EK(x) e i(ωt−Kx), where EK(x) is periodic with the period ‘d’. For the determination of K as a

function of eigen value, the equation is written as

( CA DB )(ab ) =e ( ab )
n

n
iKd n

n
(15)

The solution of this matrix equation leads to the dispersion relation for the PC structure

containing the alternate stacks of positive index materials, denoted by PC1, is given by

K(ω) = ( 1d ) cos−1
¿¿ (16)

6
,

4. RESULT & DISCUSSION:

[a] Reflectance at oblique incidence:

In this section we present the numerical analysis of the proposed PC structure and show

the Omni-directional reflection bands for both TE and TM polarizations. The value of

refractive index for the Al2O3 film is taken as 1.63 and Ti 2O3 is 2.34 at 550nm. The

thickness of the layers are taken as according to quarter wave stacks condition i.e.

d1=λ0/4n1 and d2=λ0/4n2. The reflection spectra obtained for the total number of layers

N=10 is depicted in Fig-2 for both TE and TM polarizations. From the study of these

figures it is observed that as the angle of incidence increases the reflection band width

increases for TE mode while it decreases for TM mode and at the same time the

reflection band is shifted towards lower wavelength region (blue shifted). The width of

reflection band has larger value for the TE mode in comparison to the TM mode.

TE MODE TM MODE
Incident Reflected region Band Reflected region Band Omini-PBG
angle nm width nm width (531.2- 477.5)=53.7nm
(nm) (nm)
00 477.5-648.4 170.9 477.5-648.4 170.9
300 458.1-629.7 171.6 463-620.7 157.7

7
 600 416.1-591.3 175.2 431.9-562.1 130.2
890 393.4-571.3 177.9 414.8-531.2 116.4

Table 1

At oblique incidence, different polarizations (TE and TM) exhibit different reflectance. If a PC

reflects light of both polarizations incident at any angle within a certain frequency range ,The PC

is said to have a complete Omni-PBG.

The Omni-PBG is narrow, mainly because of the reason that the refractive index contrast

between the two sublayers of the system is not too large. It may also partly be attributed to the

strong effect of the Brewster angle for TM polarizations within the given system

In our next study we have seen the effect of ambient medium on Omni-PBG. The analysis shows

that the structure will give Omni-PBG if nambient < n1 and width of Omni-PBG decreases as nambient

approaches to n1 as shown in Fig -3

Ambient TE 00 TM 890 Omni-PBG

ref.index Reflected region Reflected region nm
nm nm
1 477.5-648.4 414.8-531.2 53.7
1.1 477.5-648.4 399.8-503.5 26
1.2 477.5-648.4 381.2-472.6 4.9

Table -2

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We have also studied the effect of numbers of layers on Omni- PBG. The study shows that as we

increase the number of layers the reflection band becomes broader for the same thickness and

refractive index contrast. As N increases the width of reflection band decreases and the central

wavelength of reflection band is blue shifted as shown in Fig-3

No.of layer TE 00 TM 890 Omni-PBG

Reflected region Reflected region nm
nm nm
12 481.9-640.5 419.8-523.1 41.2
16 486.6-632.3 425.5-514.6 28
25 490.5-625.8 430.6-507.4 16.9
50 494.1-618.9 437.6-498 3.9

Table -3

The reflectance generally increases as more layers are included in the multilayered system. Due

to strong effect of the Brewster angle, the present system doesn’t have an Omni-PBG at the

designed wavelength of 550nm, in spite of large repetition number of substructure. However a

narrow Omni-PBG , away from designed wavelength, can be obtained in structure with 10 or

more pair of bilayers.

9
 1 1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
reflectivity

reflectivity
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(a) (e)

1 1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
reflectivity

reflectivity

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(b) (f)

10
 1
1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6

reflectivity
reflectivity

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(c) (g)

1 1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
reflectivity

reflectivity
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(d) (h)

Fig 2 : The reflectance spectra for TE and TM modes showing the total reflection region and

bandwidth for n1=1.63,n2=2.34, d1=84.35nm, d2=58.76 nm and N=10 at various incident angles

(a) Ө= 00 ,TE (b) Ө=300 ,TE (c) Ө=600 ,TE (d) Ө=890 ,TE (e) Ө=00 ,TM (f) Ө=300 ,TM (g)

Ө= 600 , TM (h) Ө= 890 ,TM

11
 1 1 * *

0.9 0.9 nl=25;theta=8

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6

reflectivity
reflectivity

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(a) (b)

0.9

0.8
0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
reflectivity

0.5 0.5
reflectivity

0.4 0.4

0.3
0.3

0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm 0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

(c) (d)

Fig-3 The reflectance curve for n1=1.63, n2=2.34 and d1=84.35 nm, d2=58.36 nm, N=10,

(a) ) Ө= 00 ,TE , nambient=1 (b) Ө= 890 ,TM , nambient=1 (c) Ө= 890 ,TM , nambient=1.1

(d) Ө= 890 ,TM , nambient=1.2

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 0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
reflectivity

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4
reflectivity

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

(a) (b)

13
 1
0.9

0.9
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.7
0.6
0.6
reflectivity

reflectivity
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0
0 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 wavelength in nm
wavelength in nm

(c)

(d)

1
1
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.8

0.7
0.7

0.6 0.6
reflectivity

reflectivity

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(e) (f)

14
 1 1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6

reflectivity
reflectivity

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(g) (h)

1 1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6
0.6
reflectivity

reflectivity

0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 0
wavelength in nm 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

(i) (j)

15
 1

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
reflectivity

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
reflectivity

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

(k) (l)

Fig-4 : The reflectance curve for n1=1.63, n2=2.34 and d1=84.35 nm, d2=58.36 nm,

16
 (a) Ө= 00 ,TE, N=4 (b) Ө= 890 ,TM, N=4 (c) Ө= 00 ,TE, N=8 (d) Ө= 890 ,TM, N=8 (e) Ө= 00

,TE, N=12, (f) Ө= 890 ,TM, N=12 (g) Ө= 00 ,TE, N=16 (h) Ө=890 ,TM N=16 (i) Ө= 00

,TE N=25 (j) Ө= 890 ,TM, N=25 (k) Ө= 00 ,TE N=50 (l) Ө= 890 ,TM, N=50

[b] Reflectance at normal incidence:

In this numerical calculation we have considered the optical thickness of each oxide film is

λ0/4, where λ0 is the designed wavelength 550nm, which is close to middle of the visible region.

It means in this structure n1=1.63, n2=2.34, d1=137.5 nm, d2=137.5 nm. It is seen that when N is

small, say, N=1 or 2, a local minimum occurs at the designed wavelength which can be ascribed

to the fact that the top Al2O3 has a relatively low refractive index. However when N is large, the

reflection spectrum has a broad maximum around the designed wavelength. If N is large enough

then a complete reflectance is found to a certain range, almost centered at the designed

wavelength. Such type of structure can be used as a band stop filter around the designed

wavelength (550 nm) in opto-electronics devices.

Moreover it is also found that such structures exhibit almost zero reflectance within wavelength

range 600 nm to 800 nm (Fig -5). Thus one dimensional multilayered Al 2O3- Ti2O3 (λ0/4)

photonic crystal structure can be used as a good candidate for making anti-reflection coatings in

visible spectrum from 600nm to 800nm wavelength range when N is large enough. Hence the

proposed structure can be used as a band stop filter in designed wavelength 550nm and also as a

suitable material for anti-reflection coating in the visible range from 600nm to 800nm.

17
 0.14 0.5

0.45
0.12
0.4
0.1
0.35

0.08 0.3
reflectivity

reflectivity
0.25
0.06
0.2

0.04
0.15

0.02 0.1

0.05
0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 0
wavelength in nm 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

(a) (b)

* *

0.9 1 nl=25;theta=89;TM * *

0.8 0.9 nl=25;theta=89;

0.7 0.8

0.6 0.7
reflectivity

0.5 0.6
reflectivity

0.4 0.5

0.3 0.4

0.2 0.3

0.1 0.2

0 0.1
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm

(c) (d)

18
 1 * * 1 * *

0.9 0.9 nl=25;theta=89;TM nl=25;theta=89;TM

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6

reflectivity
reflectivity

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
wavelength in nm wavelength in nm

(e) (f)

Fig -5: Reflection spectra as a function of wavelength for Al 2O3- Ti2O3 (λ0/4) structure at normal

incidence, (a) N=1 (b) N=4 (c) N=8 (d) N=10 (e) N=25 (f) N=50

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[13] S.H.Han, Q.Han Park, Y.S.Park, Y.Roh and H.S.Jeon, J. Korean Phys. Soc. 45, 9 (2004).

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