Claims
- 1. A multilayer optical component in thin-film technology for handling electromagnetic radiation which is incident transversely to the plane of the component, having a substrate which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and a low refractive index, characterized in that the substrate is a monocrystalline substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o ; that the stack of thin-film layers consists of a number of monocrystalline layers grown epitaxially from the liquid phase on the substrate and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o ; and that the component is effective for handling electromagnetic radiation which is selected from (1) the visible and (2) the visible and infrared spectral range.
- 2. An optical component as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the monocrystalline layers which, taken from the substrate, have an even number consist of the same material as the substrate.
- 3. An optical component as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the substrate and the monocrystalline layers grown epitaxially on the substrate consist of a monocrystalline material having a garnet structure.
- 4. An optical component as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the substrate is of gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 5. An optical component as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the monocrystalline garnet layers having an odd number when taken from the substrate consist of a material based on yttrium iron garnet and the layers having an even number when taken from the substrate consist of gadolinium gallium garnet for handling electromagnetic radiation in the infrared spectral range.
- 6. An optical component as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the monocrystalline garnet layers having an odd number when taken from the substrate consist of a material based on Y.sub.3 Al.sub.3 Sc.sub.2 O.sub.12 and the monocrystalline layers having an even number when taken from the substrate consist of gadolinium gallium garnet for handling electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectral range.
- 7. An optical component as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the stack of monocrystalline garnet layers adjoins the substrate and that a magneto-optically active, epitaxial monocrystalline layer is provided on the side of the stack remote from the substrate.
- 8. An optical component as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer and that the stack of monocrystalline garnet layers is grown epitaxially on the magneto-optically active garnet layer.
- 9. An optical component as claimed in claims 3, characterized in that the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer which is enclosed between a first stack of monocrystalline garnet layers having thicknesses which are optimized for reflection of electromagnetic radiation of a given wavelength and a second sub-stack of monocrystalline garnet layers having thicknesses which are optimized for antireflection of electromagnetic radiation of the said given wavelength.
- 10. A multiplayer optical component comprising a monocrystalline substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and low refractive index, said stack consisting of a number of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown on said substrate from the liquid phase and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o.
- 11. An optical component as claimed in claim 10 in which the substrate and the monocrystalline layers consist of a monocrystalline material having a garnet structure.
- 12. An optical component as claimed in claim 11 in which the monocrystalline layers having an odd number when taken from the substrate consists of a material based on yttrium iron garnet and the layers having an even number when taken from the substrate consist of gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 13. An optical component as claimed in claim 11 in which the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer and a stack of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown from the liquid phase on the epitaxial magneto optically active garnet layer.
- 14. An optical component as claimed in claim 11 in which the monocrystalline material is gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 15. A multiplayer optical component comprising a monocrystalline substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and low refractive index, said stack consisting of a number of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown on said substrate from the liquid phase and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o, the monocrystalline layers which, taken from the substrate, have an even number consisting of the same material as the substrate, the substrate and the monocrystalline layers grown epitaxially thereon consisting of a monocrystalline material having a garnet structure.
- 16. An optical component as claimed in claim 15 in which the substrate is gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 17. An optical component as claimed in claim 16 wherein the stack of monocrystalline garnet layers adjoins the substrate and a magneto-optically active, epitaxial monocrystalline layer is provided on the side of the stack remote from the substrate.
- 18. An optical component as claimed in claim 16 wherein the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer and the stack of monocrystalline garnet layers is grown epitaxially on the magneto-optically active garnet layer.
- 19. An optical component as claimed in claim 16 wherein the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer which is enclosed between a first stack of monocrystalline garnet layers having thicknesses which are optimized for reflection of electromagnetic radiation of a given wavelength and a second sub-stack of monocrystalline garnet layers having thicknesses which are optimized for anti-reflection of electromagnetic radiation of the said given wavelength.
- 20. A multilayer optical component comprising a monocrystalline gadolinium gallium garnet substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and low refractive index, said stack consisting of a number of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown on said substrate from the liquid phase and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o, the monocrystalline layers having an odd number when taken from the substrate being selected from a member of the group consisting of (1) a material based on yttrium iron garnet; and (2) a material based on Y.sub.3 Al.sub.3 Sc.sub.2 O.sub.12 ; and the monocrystalline layers having an even number when taken from the substrate consisting of gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 21. A multilayer optical component as claimed in claim 20 wherein a magneto-optically active yttrium iron garnet material is grown epitaxially on said stack of thin-film layers.
- 22. A multilayer optical component as claimed in claim 20 wherein a magneto-optically active bismuth yttrium iron garnet is epitaxially grown on said stack of thin-film layers.
- 23. A laser comprising at least one optical component for handling electromagnetic radiation which is incident transversely to the plane of the component, having a substrate which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and a low refractive index, wherein said substrate is a monocrystalline substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o ; the stack of thin-film layers consists of a number of monocrystalline layers grown epitaxially from the liquid phase on the substrate and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o ; and the component is effective for handling electromagnetic radiation which is selected from (1) the visible and (2) the visible and infrared spectral range.
- 24. A laser as claimed in claim 23 wherein the substrate and the monocrystalline layers grown epitaxially on the substrate consist of a monocyrstalline material having a garnet structure.
- 25. A laser comprising at least one multilayer optical component comprising a monocrystalline substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and low refractive index, said stack consisting of a number of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown on said substrate from the liquid phase and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o.
- 26. A laser as claimed in claim 25 in which the substrate and the monocrystalline layers consist of a monocrystalline material having a garnet structure.
- 27. A laser as claimed in claim 26 in which the monocrystalline layers having an odd number when taken from the substrate consists of a material based on yttrium iron garnet and the layers having an even number when taken from the substrate consist of gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 28. A laser as claimed in claim 26 in which the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer and a stack of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown from the liquid phase on the epitaxial magneto-optically active garnet layer.
- 29. A laser comprising at least one optical component comprising a monocrystalline substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternatively a high and low refractive index, said stack consisting of a number of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown on said substrate from the liquid phase and having a lattice constant which is substantially equal to a.sub.o, the monocrystalline layers which, taken from the substrate have an even number consisting of the same material as the substrate, the substrate and the monocrystalline layers grown epitaxially thereon consisting of a monocrystalline material having a garnet structure.
- 30. A laser as claimed in claim 29 in which the substrate is gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 31. A laser as claimed in claim 30 in which the stack of monocrystalline garnet layers adjoins the substrate and a magneto-optically active, epitaxial monocrystalline layer is provided on the side of the stack remote from the substrate.
- 32. A laser as claimed in claim 30 in which the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer and the stack of monocrystalline garnet layers is grown epitaxially on the magneto-optically active garnet layer.
- 33. A laser as claimed in claim 30 in which the substrate supports an epitaxial magneto-optically active monocrystalline garnet layer which is enclosed between a first stack of monocrystalline garnet layers having thicknesses which are optimized for reflection of electromagnetic radiation of a given wavelength and a second sub-stack of monocrystalline garnet layers having thicknesses which are optimized for anti-reflection of electromagnetic radiation of the said given wavelength.
- 34. A laser comprising at least one multilayer optical component comprising a monocrystalline gadolinium gallium garnet substrate having a lattice constant a.sub.o which supports a stack of thin-film layers having alternately a high and low refractive index, said stack consisting of a number of monocrystalline layers epitaxially grown on said substrate from the liquid phase equal to a.sub.o, the monocrystalline layers having an odd number when taken from the substrate being selected from a member of the group consisting of (1) a material based on yttrium iron garnet; and (2) a material based on Y.sub.3 Al.sub.3 Sc.sub.2 O.sub.12 ; and the monocrystalline layers having an even number when taken from the substrate consisting of gadolinium gallium garnet.
- 35. A laser as claimed in claim 34 in which a magneto-optically active yttrium garnet material is grown epitaxially on said stack of thin-film layers.
- 36. A laser as claimed in claim 34 in which a magneto-optically active bismuth yttrium iron garnet is epitaxially grown on said stack of thin-film layers.
Priority Claims (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
8303446 |
Oct 1983 |
NLX |
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8403816 |
Dec 1984 |
NLX |
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Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 801,368, filed Nov. 25, 1985, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 658,109 filed Oct. 5, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,892 issued July 14, 1987.
US Referenced Citations (8)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
1019681 |
Nov 1952 |
FRX |
2020842A |
Nov 1979 |
GBX |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)
Entry |
Van der Ziel, J. P., et al, "Interference Filters: Single Crystal Multilayer AlAs-GaAs," Applied Optics, vol. 15, No. 5, May, 1976, pp. 1256-1257. |
Arsen'ev, P., et al, "Growing Optical Films of Aluminum Yttrium Garnet," Sov. Phys. Crystallogr. 23(3), May-Jun. 1978, pp. 376-377 S9145 0095. |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
801368 |
Nov 1985 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
658109 |
Oct 1984 |
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