Columnar and chevronic thin films of GeSbSe chalcogenide glasses were grown by the oblique-angle-deposition technique. These thin films were found to exhibit dielectric anisotropy in the near-infrared regime. The retardance of any of the fabricated thin films was found to increase linearly with the thickness. Columnar thin films exhibited significantly lower retardance per unit thickness than chevronic thin films. The experimental results indicate the potential of these thin films for near-infrared polarizers. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.