This paper describes an investigation of double-layer anti-reflection (DLAR) coatings with MgF2 and CeO2 films. We obtained CeO2 films with a refractive index between 2.3 and 2.4, a surface state density of approximately 10(11) eV(-l) cm(-2), and a similar lattice mismatch to silicon substrate. The CeO2 film grown at 400 degreesC exhibited a (111) preferred orientation and the lowest surface roughness of 6.87 Angstrom. The refractive index for the MgF2 film exhibited approximately 1.386 for most of the film growth temperatures. A theoretically optimized DLAR coating was found to have an average reflectance as low as 1.87% when wavelengths ranged from 0.4 mum to 1.1 mum.