Distributed Bragg reflector based on porous anodic alumina fabricated by pulse anodization.

In this paper, we demonstrate a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) based on nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) formed by pulse anodization. The AAO structure with alternating mild anodized (MA) and hard anodized (HA) layers having different porosities and thereby different refractive indices was fabricated in 0.3 M H₂SO₄ using potential pulses of 25 and 35 V. The effective refractive index of the HA layers can be tailored by changing the porosity of the HA layers. The porosity of the HA layers can be significantly increased by selective chemical etching of HA segments in 0.52 M H₃PO₄. Before etching, the porous AAO structure was supported by a polymer nanorod frame. On the selected surface area pores were infiltrated with polymers (polystyrene and PMMA). The designed AAO structure consists of alternating high and low refractive index layers and behaves as a distributed Bragg mirror reflecting light in two different ranges of wavelength. This behavior is extremely important in optical communication lines where two separate spectral bands of high reflectivity in the infrared region are desired.