Many research and engineering disciplines require a priori knowledge of the spectral properties of materials. The spectral transmittance and reflectance of these materials are not readily available and require expensive equipment to perform the measurements. To complicate matters further many materials are composed of multiple layers, and are made up of a combination of different materials. It can be very beneficial to be able to predict the spectral transmittance and reflectance of these different combinations without having to repeat the measurements.

An analytical model was developed for calculating the spectral reflectance and transmittance of a given multi-layer material based on the data of a single layer of the material. This model and its simple and fast implementation were validated using commercial simulation software, and by comparison with experimental results. Good agreement was found between the predicted and the measured values.