| abstract |
Birefringent optical films have a Brewster angle (the angle at which reflectance of p-polarized light goes to zero) which is very large or is nonexistent. This allows for the construction of multilayer mirrors and polarizers whose reflectivity for p-polarized light decreases slowly with angle of incidence, are independent of angle of incidence, or increase with angle of incidence away from the normal. As a result, mirror films with high reflectivity in two different planes of polarization for any incident direction over a wide bandwidth can be achieved. |