Organic–inorganic dielectric multilayer systems as high reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors

Unprecedentedly high reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors consisting of fluorocarbon polymer (CFx) and high refractive index inorganic oxide multilayers have been fabricated by means of assisted ion-beam sputtering at room temperature. Multilayer stacks consisting of a CFx/TiOx and CFx/HfOx pairs exhibit reflectivities larger than 98% in the infrared and ultraviolet spectral region, respectively. The superior wide tunability and the high efficiency, with respect to inorganic–inorganic multilayers is due to the exceptionally low refractive index of the fluorcarbon polymer (n≃1.35) on a very large spectral region (300–2000 nm).