Synthesis of thick optical thin-film filters with a layer-peeling inverse-scattering algorithm

We present an efficient and accurate method for synthesis of optical thin-f ilm structures. Toe method is based on a differential inverse-scattering al gorithm and considers therefore both phase and amplitude reflectance data. We apply the algorithm to the synthesis of filters with arbitrary index lay ers and two-material filters consisting of only high- and low-index layers. The layered structure is approximated by a stack of discrete reflectors wi th equal distance between all reflectors. This mirror stack is in turn dete rmined from the desired, complex reflection spectrum by a layer-peeling inv erse-scattering algorithm. The complexity of the design algorithm is approx imately the same as that of the forward problem of computing the spectrum f rom a known structure. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.