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Birefringence of interferential mirrors at normal incidence : Experimental and computational study

In this paper we present a review of the existing
data on interferential mirror birefringence. We also report
new measurements of two sets of mirrors that confirm that
mirror phase retardation per reflection decreases when mirror
reflectivity increases. We finally developed a computational
code to calculate the expected phase retardation per
reflection as a function of the total number of layers constituting
the mirror. Different cases have been studied and we
have compared computational results with the trend of the
experimental data. Our study indicates that the origin of the
mirror intrinsic birefringence can be ascribed to the reflecting
layers close to the substrate.

View online : Appl Phys B (2009) 97: 457–463