Omnidirectional reflection in several frequency ranges of one-dimensional photonic crystals

We investigate omnidirectional reflection from higher-order gaps in one-dimensional photonic crystals. Moreover, we present a designing criterion for omnidirectional reflection from several distinct gaps simultaneously, using only a single photonic crystal with a constant period. We show that for practical values of photonic crystals parameters, several relatively large omnidirectional gaps may be obtained. As an example, we demonstrate an omnidirectional reflector that exhibits two distinct wide omnidirectional ranges at near-infrared wavelengths. This omnidirectional reflector that operates in several ranges of wavelengths may have various potential applications. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.