In the terahertz-wave region, fabrication of an antireflection (AR) co
ating is difficult because it must be as thick as several tens of micr
ometers, which is far thicker than that used in the optical region. We
discuss a lapping method for fabricating an AR layer with a desired t
hickness for terahertz-wave optical devices. To demonstrate this metho
d, we glued a thin fused-quartz plate to a surface of an undoped Ge or
GaAs wafer and polished it to a thickness of one-quarter wavelength.
This reduced the reflectivity of the AR surface to 1/720 of the reflec
tion of an uncoated surface, as expected from optical theory. (C) 1998
Optical Society of America.