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A dielectric mirror is a special kind of a mirror, made of a substrate of glass or some other optical material, on which one or more thin layers of dielectric material are deposited, to form an optical coating. By careful choice of the type and thickness of the dielectric layers, the range of wavelengths and amount of light reflected from the mirror can be specified. The best mirrors of this type can reflect >99.999% of the light (in a narrow range of wavelengths) which is incident on the mirror. Some dielectric mirrors function like one-dimensional photonic crystals, while others have a different structure.
Dielectric mirrors have become very common in optics, due to improved techniques that allow inexpensive manufacture of high-quality mirrors. Examples include laser cavity end mirrors, hot and cold mirrors, thin-film beamsplitters, and the coatings on modern mirrorshades.
The manufacturing techniques for dielectric mirrors are based on thin-film deposition methods. Common techniques are physical vapor deposition (which includes evaporative deposition and ion beam assisted deposition), chemical vapor deposition, ion beam deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, and sputtering.
Dielectric mirrors operate on similar principles to anti-reflective coatings and dichroic filters.
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"Dielectric mirror"