A collimating sheet, for use with a backlit display and the like, that includes a substrate, a plurality of microlenses on the output side of the substrate, a specularly
reflective layer on the side of the substrate opposite the microlenses, and a plurality of apertures in the
reflective layer in direct correspondence to the microlenses of the
lens array. The specularly
reflective layer can be relatively thinner than a diffuse reflective layer, which allows light to pass through the more readily. One or more
layers of
dielectric can be placed on top of one or more reflective material
layers to further improves overall
reflectivity. Apertures are preferably made in the light-absorptive and reflective
layers with a
laser ablation process wherein
laser light illuminates the output side of the film. The
laser light is brought to a focus by the lenslets of the
lens array onto the light-absorptive layer, which then ablates a hole or aperture into the light-absorptive and reflective layer. In this way, the apertures are self-aligned with the lenslets.