Design and fabrication of optical thin film layers with variable thickness profile for producing variable reflectivity mirrors

The design method and fabrication of mirrors with variable reflectivity are presented. To fabricate such a mirror a fixed mask with a circular aperture is used. The circular aperture is considered as an extended source with cosx(θ)as its diffusion distribution function and is the parameter for the distribution function of the particles through the aperture. The thickness profile of deposited layer is a function of this distribution. In this work, the coating system is calibrated for the materials which are used and then the parameter of the diffusion distribution function of the particles through the circular aperture is defined by experiments. Using these results, a graph is presented which connects the parameter of the circular aperture to the parameters of the thickness profile. It is then possible to deposit any type of variable reflectivity mirror using this graph. Finally, the effect of the uncertainty in measuring layer thicknesses on the phase of reflected wave and transmitted wave is investigated.