OmniGuide's perfect mirror
It's a light reflecting device, not an emitter, but it does have organics in it. Anyway, where else to put it but here? <g>
MIT researchers made headlines in 1998 after they disclosed their invention in Science. Recently, they secured 'angel' funding from Ray Stata of Analog, and named him acting CEO of their commercial start-up:
omni-guide.com
See the tech page > "Perfect Mirror Design Technology", AFOSR Research Highlights, Jan-Feb 1999. This gives the materials used in the initial design:
The researchers demonstrated the new design by fabricating a mirror comprised of nine alternating layers of polystyrene (a plastic) and tellurium. The mirrors are made using polymer processing techniques that allow the manufacture of very high-quality optical devices for relatively low cost without a lot of specialized equipment. In addition, the materials are relatively common, easy to process, and can be used for applications covering large areas.
|:|:|:|:| where | is polystyrene, : is tellurium
An analysis of this nine-layer stack is given in the article "A Dielectric Omnidirectional Reflector", Science Vol. 282, 27 Nov 1998, p 1679. The OmniGuide, a design for a coaxial waveguide based on the same principles, is described in a second Science article.
WT |
