Dichroic Bragg reflectors based on birefringent porous silicon

Multilayers of anisotropically nanostructured silicon (Si) have been fabricated and studied by polarization-resolved reflection measurements. Alternating layers having different refractive indices exhibit additionally a strong in-plane anisotropy of their refractive index (birefringence). Therefore, a stack of layers, acting as a distributed Bragg reflector, has two distinct reflection bands, depending on the polarization of the incident linearly polarized light. This effect is governed by a three-dimensional (in-plane and in-depth) variation of the refractive index. These structures can yield optical effects which are difficult to achieve with conventional Bragg reflectors. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.