Abstract
The conditions under which light interference in a transparent quarter-wave layer of refractive index on a transparent substrate of refractive index leads to 50% reflectance for incident unpolarized light at an angle φ are determined. Two distinct solution branches are obtained that correspond to light reflection above and below the polarizing angle, , of zero reflection for p polarization. The real p and s amplitude reflection coefficients have the same (negative) sign for the solution branch and have opposite signs for the solution branch . Operation at is the basis of a 50%–50% beam splitter that divides an incident totally polarized light beam (with p and s components of equal intensity) into reflected and refracted beams of orthogonal polarizations [Opt. Lett. 31, 1525 (2006) ] and requires a film refractive index . A monochromatic design that uses a high-index thin film on a low-index substrate at wavelength is presented as an example.
© 2007 Optical Society of America
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