Quarter-wave Mirrors
Author: the photonics expert Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta (RP)
Definition: dielectric mirrors based on a sequence of quarter-wave layers
Alternative term: Bragg mirrors
More general term: dielectric mirrors
Page views in 12 months: 780
DOI: 10.61835/let Cite the article: BibTex plain textHTML Link to this page! LinkedIn
A quarter-wave mirror, also called a Bragg mirror, is usually a dielectric mirror (or semiconductor mirror) structure which consists of an alternating sequence of layers of two different optical materials, with each optical layer thickness corresponding to one-quarter of the wavelength for which the mirror is designed. Here, the wavelength is taken to be the wavelength within the material, not the vacuum wavelength. For a given wavelength and number of layer pairs, a quarter-wave mirror is the structure which can result in the highest reflectance.
Quarter-wave stacks are also very basic building blocks of more complicated dielectric mirror structures.
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Suppliers
The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains 201 suppliers for mirrors. Among them:
EKSMA OPTICS

EKSMA Optics has a wide selection of dielectric and metal-coated mirrors on stock. Precision custom mirrors can be manufactured upon request.
Edmund Optics

Edmund Optics offers a range of laser mirrors for use from the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) to the far IR. Laser mirrors designed for dye, diode, Nd:YAG, Nd:YLF, Yb:YAG, Ti:sapphire, fiber, and many more laser sources are available as flat mirrors, right angle mirrors, concave mirrors, and other specialty shapes. Ultrafast laser line mirrors designed to provide high reflection with minimal group delay dispersion (GDD) for femtosecond pulsed lasers including Er:glass, Ti:sapphire, and Yb:doped laser sources are also available.
Avantier

Avantier specializes in producing custom optical precision mirrors for various applications, including but not limited to life sciences, astronomy, metrology, and solar engineering. These industries rely on our precision mirrors and other optical components to meet their specific needs.
Shalom EO

Discover the pinnacle of technologies with Shalom EO’s optical mirrors, where our diverse catalogs of mirror types like dielectric broadband mirrors, laser line mirrors, metallic mirrors, femtoline low-GDD mirrors, high power laser mirrors, chirped mirrors and pairs, ultrafast-enhanced silver mirrors, super polished mirrors and mirror blanks cater to all sorts of demands. In addition, we also provide CO2 laser mirrors.
Shalom EO utilizes a set of cutting-edge coating technologies e.g. (dielectric coatings, enhanced Al coatings, protective silver and gold coatings, and low GDD coating technologies for ultrafast applications) to achieve the optimum optical results. Our high power laser mirror can achieve a damage threshold of >20 J/cm2 @ 1064 nm, 10 ns, 10 Hz pulses.
Backed by state-of-the-art production techniques, Shalom EO is capable of providing both standard grade optical mirrors with price competitiveness and high precision optical mirrors with high flatness, high damage threshold, and good surface quality optimized for lasers. Both off-the-shelf and customized laser mirrors are available for our customers.
UltraFast Innovations

UltraFast Innovations (UFI®) provides a range of mirrors mostly for ultrafast lasers. We particularly emphasize mirrors with broad bandwidth and well controlled chromatic dispersion.
Shanghai Optics

At Shanghai Optics we manufacture custom optical precision mirrors for a wide range of applications. Life sciences, astronomy, metrology, and solar engineering are only a few of the industries which depend on our precision mirrors and other optical components.
Sinoptix

We offer custom optical mirrors on glass, fused silica, plastic or metal substrates. Round, parabolic, conic and free-form shapes. High quality high reflective coatings: silver, aluminium, gold or dielectric multi-layer designs.
OPTOMAN

OPTOMAN manufactures a range of application-optimized laser mirrors, including extreme low-loss mirrors, dispersive mirrors, low GDD ultrafast mirrors and laser line mirrors. We focus on a single manufacturing technology – ion beam sputtering (IBS). OPTOMAN's IBS-coated mirrors feature high LIDT, spectral accuracy and environmental stability.
Standard in-stock IBS coated mirrors can be found in OPTOSHOP.
Knight Optical

Knight Optical offer stock mirrors including concave, elliptical, concave lamp reflectors and plane mirrors. Our mirror coatings include UV enhanced aluminium (180–650 nm), enhanced aluminium (450–650 nm), visible dielectric (450–700 nm), NIR dielectric (700–1064 nm), ion-plated silver (450–2000 nm), and protected gold (750 nm-far IR).
If your requirements are not met by our stock components, we can provide custom mirrors manufactured to your specifications.
Perkins Precision Developments

Perkins Precision Developments (PPD) manufactures high energy laser mirrors and precision optics for both prototype and volume OEM requirements. We also offer custom Ion Beam Sputtered (IBS) thin film coatings for visible to near-infrared wavelengths on customer supplied substrates. PPD utilizes IBS coating technology because it is ideal for complex spectral designs, high power lasers and applications where it is critical to minimize losses from absorption and scatter.
Typical mirror coatings include dielectric low-loss high reflectors (HR), multi-wavelength high reflectors, dichroic mirrors, trichroic mirrors, partial beam splitter mirrors, non-polarizing and dispersion controlled mirrors.
Artifex Engineering

Artifex Engineering offers custom mirrors tailored to your requirements. Our mirrors can be manufactured in almost any shape: round, rectangular, elliptical, or any other shape including cut-outs and drill holes. Holes may also be drilled at an angle to the surface normal. We offer dielectric coatings and metal coatings (aluminium, silver or gold) with protective overcoat. Dielectric coatings are particularly developed for the respective application and enable precise wavelength ranges, so that individual wavelengths or selected ranges can be specified. Visit our product page for more information. We look forward to your inquiry.
IRD Glass

IRD Glass manufactures first surface and second surface flat mirrors and laser mirrors that are used for interferometry, beam steering or folding, and many optical components within imaging systems. Our optical mirrors are completely customizable to meet our clients’ needs. From a basic protected aluminum through high laser damage threshold mirrors, IRD will certify the performance and specifications with whatever data you require.
Megawatt Lasers

MegaWatt Lasers has a large inventory of HR and OC mirrors for 1064 nm, 2.1 μm and 2.94 μm wavelengths. We also can assist in specification of optics for these wavelengths.
LASEROPTIK

LASEROPTIK can produce a wide range of laser mirrors with high reflectivity (HR) or partial reflectivity at given wavelength. We can also make specialty mirrors, e.g. with extremely broad reflection bands.
We use different coating technologies depending on your detailed requirements.
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