An evolutionary algorithm for the synthesis of multilayer coatings at oblique light incidence

A robust evolutionary approach is proposed for the synthesis of multilayer coatings at oblique light incidence. The proposed approach consists of global and local strategies by integrating decreasing mutations and self-adaptive mutations via family competition and adaptive rules. Numerical results calculated at normal and oblique angles of incidence indicate that the proposed approach performs very robustly and is very competitive with other approaches. Our approach, although somewhat slower, is very flexible and can easily be adapted to other application domains. This approach is able to generate binary-type solutions based on two materials and to generate inhomogeneous solutions with continuous refractive-index variations.