Optical Broadband Angular Selectivity

Abstract

Light selection based purely on the angle of propagation is a long-standing scientific challenge. In angularly selective systems, however, the transmission of light usually also depends on the light frequency. We tailored the overlap of the band gaps of multiple one-dimensional photonic crystals, each with a different periodicity, in such a way as to preserve the characteristic Brewster modes across a broadband spectrum. We provide theory as well as an experimental realization with an all-visible spectrum, p-polarized angularly selective material system. Our method enables transparency throughout the visible spectrum at one angle--the generalized Brewster angle--and reflection at every other viewing angle.