Enlargement of omnidirectional total reflection frequency range in one-dimensional photonic crystals by using photonic heterostructures

We show theoretically that the omnidirectional total reflection frequency range of a multilayer dielectric reflector can be substantially enlarged as desired by using photonic heterostructures. This photonic heterostructure consists of different one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystals. The constituent 1D photonic crystals have to be properly chosen such that their omnidirectional photonic band gaps of the adjacent photonic crystals overlap each other. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.