Omnidirectional reflector using a low refractive index material

Triple-layer omni-directional reflectors (ODRs) consisting of a semiconductor, a transparent quarter-wavelength dielectric layer and metal layer have high reflectivities at all angles of incidence. In this paper, triple-layer ODRs are demonstrated that incorporate nanoporous SiO/sub 2/, a novel low-refractive-index (low-n) material with refractive indices n /spl Lt/ 1.46 as well as dense SiO/sub 2/ (n = 1.46). GaP and Ag serve as the semiconductor and metal layer materials, respectively. An angle-integrated transverse electric (TE) mode reflectivity of R/sub avg/|/sub TE/ = 99.9 % and transverse magnetic (TM) mode reflectivity R/sub avg/|/sub TM/ = 98.9 % are calculated for the triple-layer ODRs employing nanoporous SiO/sub 2/. Reflectivity measurements, including the angular dependence of R, are presented. Novel hybrid ODRs consisting of semiconductor, a several micron thick low-n dielectric material layer, a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and metal layer have outstanding reflectivities for all incident angles. GaP and Ag serve as the semiconductor and metal layer, respectively. Nanoporous SiO/sub 2/ is used as the low-n material. TiO/sub 2/ and dense SiO/sub 2/ serve as the DBR materials. The angle-intergrated reflectivities of the TE and TM modes are calculated to be larger than 99.9% for the hybrid ODRs. The results indicate the great potential of the ODRs for light-emitting diodes with high light extraction efficiency.