In this paper, we investigate transmission of electromagnetic wave through aperiodic dielectric multilayers. A generic feature shown is that the mirror symmetry in the system can induce the resonant transmission, which originates from the positional correlations (for example, presence of dimers) in the system. Furthermore, the resonant transmission can be manipulated at a specific wavelength by tuning aperiodic structures with internal symmetry. The theoretical results are experimentally proved in the optical observation of aperiodic ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2/{\mathrm{TiO}}_2$ multilayers with internal symmetry. We expect that this feature may have potential applications in optoelectric devices such as the wavelength division multiplexing system.

• Received 2 November 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.69.165109