Thin film design program based on the flip-flop method with a random search

Abstract

A method for the design of optical coatings is proposed in which the starting multilayers are made of very thin high and low index layers as the starting design of the flip-flop method. Many sequences of high and low index layers are generated randomly and a number of them are selected before starting the convergence process that is based on the times that each layer shows a high or low index within those sequences. Owing to the initial random choice, the dependence of the final result on the starting coating structure is avoided. Some typical problems are solved to test this method.