Properties of Bragg reflectors composed of isotropic dielectric layers cladded with birefringent media

The reflectance of an asymmetric periodic dielectric stack comprising a periodic stratified dielectric film bounded by a positive birefringent uniaxial medium on one side and by an isotropic dielectric material on the other side are calculated by using the 4/spl times/4 transfer matrix formalism. The results show that the values of the reflectance have a strong dependence on the structure parameters, the incident polarization, and the optical axis orientation. The dependence of the reflectance on the optical axis orientation suggests that this effect could be used for the fabrication of a new kind of Bragg reflector.