Recording high-dispersion spherical holographic gratings in a modified Rowland mounting by use of a multimode deformable mirror

To reduce the uncorrected higher-order aberrations for holographic gratings requiring an extreme dispersion, we have modified the Rowland mounting by moving the recording laser sources away from the grating. Then, with a multimode deformable plane mirror to record the grating, the correction of all the aberrations up to the fourth order inclusive is found sufficient to obtain a high-quality image. Applied to the FUSE-LYMAN grating, with a groove density of as much as 5740 grooves/mm, for which a resolution of 30,000 was required, this new recording device produces a resolution from 139,000 to 222,000 over the spectral range.     

Modeling and design of planar slanted volume holographic gratings for wavelength-division-multiplexing applications

Holographic gratings are modeled and designed for path-reversed substrate-guided-wave wavelength-division demultiplexing (WDDM) as a continuation of earlier research [Appl. Opt. 38, 3046 (1999)]. An efficient and practical method is developed to simulate the slanted volume holographic gratings. The trade-off between dispersion and the bandwidth of the holograms is analyzed. A 60 degrees (incident angle of the grating)/60 degrees (diffraction angle of the grating in air) grating structure is selected to demultiplex optical signals in the 1555-nm spectral region, and a 45 degrees /45 degrees grating structure is chosen for the spectral region near 800 nm. Experimental results are consistent with the simulation results for these two WDDM devices. A four-channel WDDM is also demonstrated at a center wavelength of 1555 nm and with a channel spacing of 2 nm.     

Broadband FUV imaging spectrometer: advanced design with a single toroidal uniform-line-space grating

Performances of a far-ultraviolet (FUV) imaging spectrometer in an advanced design are presented with a toroidal uniform-line-space (TULS) grating. It provides high spatial resolution and spectral resolution for a broadband and a wide field of view. A particular analysis for the grating aberrations, including all the high-order coefficients neglected by previous existing designs, was generated for indicating their significance. The analysis indicates that these high-order off-axis aberrations would have a remarkable influence on the design results. The transcendental equations composed of these aberration coefficients do not have analytic solutions in algebra. To solve the problem, the past designs always do some simplified calculation which only suits a narrow field of view and waveband. Thus, the optimization of the genetic algorithm is introduced to propose reasonable ranges of optical parameters. Then ZEMAX software is used to obtain the final optical system from these ranges. By comparing different design results of the same example, our advanced TULS design performs better than conventional TULS design and spherical varied-line-space grating design, and as well as the toroidal varied-line-space design. It is demonstrated that aberrations are minimized when the TULS design is operated by our method. The advanced design is low-cost, easy to fabricate, and more suitable for FUV observations.     

Design of a high-efficiency volume grating coupler for line focusing

A volume grating for outcoupling and line focusing of waveguided infrared light is designed and optimized. A local grating vector approach is used in combination with the rigorous coupled-wave analysis. By design, this volume grating coupler is holographically constructed on top of a waveguide by the interference of two coherent 364-nm ultraviolet waves formed with two aberration-optimized cylindrical lenses. This focusing coupler exhibits preferential-order coupling (92.9%) into the cover as well as very low focal intensity side lobes. This is accomplished through a chirped, slanted-fringe volume grating with a designed spatial variation in the attenuation coefficient (describing the outcoupling of the guided mode) along the length of the grating. This is achieved by a specific variation in the grating slant angle along the grating length. By design, the 1000-mum-length coupler focuses an 850-nm infrared guided wave to a line with an intensity FWHM of 3.32 mum and a 90% power width of 5.53 mum at a focal distance of 4 mm directly above the grating. Its performance is compared with that of a corresponding electron-beam-written surface-relief coupler design.     

Spherical-grating monochromator with a variable-line-spaced grating for synchrotron radiation

An optical design for spherical-grating monochromators for application to synchrotron radiation is presented. High spectral and spatial performance is obtained with a spherical variable-line-spaced grating coupled to a spherical mirror with its tangential plane coincident with the grating's equatorial plane. The monochromator works without an entrance slit in an off-Rowland configuration with a fixed entrance arm and demagnification on the exit slit. The law for groove-space variation of the grating compensates for the main spectral aberrations; spectral focusing in an extended energy range is ensured by a slight change in the exit arm with translations of the order of a few tens of millimeters. The inclusion of a spherical mirror ensures focusing on a plane perpendicular to the plane of spectral dispersion. The ultimate resolution is limited by the slope errors of a single spherical surface. The layout is applied to the design of a high-resolution monochromator for the 1000-250-eV region.     

Comparison of the calculated and the measured efficiencies of a normal-incidence grating in the 125-225- A wavelength range

The efficiency of a diffraction grating was measured near normal incidence in the 125-225-A wavelength range with synchrotron radiation. The grating pattern had 2400 grooves/mm and was recorded on a concave fused-silica blank by a holographic technique. The grooves were shaped by ion-beam etching to provide a facet with a blaze angle of 2.5 degrees as determined by atomic force microscopy. Because of the characteristics of the etching process the groove profile was approximately triangular, with the other facet inclined at an angle of 5.5 degrees to the surface. The measured efficiency was compared with the efficiency calculated by a computer program, small enough to run on a personal computer, that solved the periodic boundary-value problem corresponding to electromagnetic radiation incident on a diffraction grating with finite conductivity. The calculation was based on the nominal groove profile that was determined by atomic force microscopy. The measured and the calculated efficiencies were in good agreement. This investigation indicates that the diffraction efficiency of a normal-incidence grating can be calculated in the soft-x-ray region with a personal computer.     

Characteristics of an absolutely calibrated flat-field extreme ultraviolet spectrometer in the 10-130 A range for fusion plasma diagnostics

A flat-field extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer with a nominal 2400 grooves/mm aberration-corrected ruled grating has been developed to analyze the emission spectrum in the wavelength range of 10 to 130 A from large helical device (LHD) plasmas. Spectral properties such as resolution, sensitivity, contribution of higher-order light, and background stray light have been studied using emission spectra mainly from intrinsic impurities, e.g., C and Fe. It is found that the spectrometer well resolves closely existing spectral lines of highly ionized medium- and high-Z impurities even in a very short wavelength range such as 10 to 20 A. As a result, it allows one to study the charge state distribution of elements in high-temperature fusion plasma. The ruled grating was then replaced by a laminar type holographic grating for the comparative study. The spectral resolution for the ruled grating (Dlambda approximately 0.08 A at 33.73 A) is clearly better than the holographic grating (Dlambda approximately 0.13 A at 33.73 A). Both gratings well suppress the higher-order light, e.g., the second-order light is only less than 11% of the first-order light for C vi(33.73 A). Relative sensitivity calibration with the wavelength has been done using bremsstrahlung continuum from the LHD plasmas. Absolute intensity calibration has been done by comparing the spectral intensities directly with the absolutely calibrated 1200 grooves/mm EUV spectrometer in the overlapping range of 90-120 A due to the absence of a good branching pair in 10-130 A. As a typical result on the present spectrometer well-resolved n=2-3 full transition arrays from Ne- to Li-like ions are measured for Fe and Ti and wavelengths of the spectral array are tabulated for each charge state. Spectroscopic comparison is also made between the 1200 grooves/mm and 2400 grooves/mm gratings in a range of 50-130 A.     

Waveguide image slicer

A new image slicer with a simple structure has been developed for use in grating spectrometers. The image slicer has polished thin glass plates that work as optical waveguides. It has a square 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm input surface and a steplike output surface with a width of 50 mum that is thin enough for high spectral resolution measurement. The output surface is in the same plane as the input surface so that optical path differences between the plates do not affect the spectrometer optics. The image slicer is efficient, with optical systems with F ratios faster than 10, and can be used at wavelengths that range from visual (lambda = 0.4 mum) to the near infrared (lambda = 2 mum).     

High-Quality Brewster's Angle Polarizer for Broadband Infrared Application

We have designed and constructed a linear polarizer for use with visible and infrared radiation. The broadband polarizer consists of four germanium plates arranged in a chevron geometry. Input radiation is incident near Brewster's angle for the first plate such that the reflected beam is preferentially s-wave polarized. This reflected beam is steered subsequently to the successive plates, always intersecting near Brewster's angle. The beam polarization at the output of the device is almost completely s-wave polarized. The ratio of the paraxial flux of the nearly extinguished p-wave polarized light to the s-wave polarized light transmitted through the device is found to be less than 10(-5) for laser illumination at wavelengths of 0.633, 1.32, 3.39, and 10.6 mum. Calculations predict that extinction ratios less than 10(-5) are achievable over the wavelength range from 0.4 mum to beyond 500 mum. Alternative design geometries involving fewer plates are also described along with their advantages and disadvantages.     

Varied line-space grating for flat spectral response of coupling to single-mode fiber

We use a planar linear grating with varied line-space grooves to introduce a tailored one-dimensional phase variation profile that results in an aberrated point-spread function at the focal plane. A design procedure for the period chirp map for such gratings is developed. As an example, we present theoretical and experimental results on a mechanically ruled, varied line-space echelle grating in single-mode fiber-coupled optical multiplexers in the wavelength region of 1545 nm. The varied line-space grating changes the multiplexer's Gaussian spectral response function to a flat-top dependence with reduced sensitivity to source laser wavelength drift.     

Combination of grating lenses for color splitting and imaging

A pair of planar reflection gratings is proposed and discussed for use in a color-splitting and imaging system, such as a projection-type color-scanner head. Red, green, and blue light reflected from a color subject are split by a color-splitting grating lens and imaged by an image-correction grating, consisting of three segments, onto three line sensors arranged in parallel. The phase-shift function of the image-correction grating was optimized for each color by numerical iteration with the ray-tracing method to suppress aberrations resulting from the wide view angle and the three different wavelengths. Gratings were designed and fabricated, and aberration suppression was experimentally confirmed.     

Segmented chirped grating for coarse wavelength division demultiplexing with multimode optical fibers

A chirped grating segmented into partitions each having a constant blaze angle to use in a demultiplexer for coarse wavelength division multiplexing with multimode optical fibers is developed. Its designed configuration utilizes a resonance region to achieve high diffraction efficiency and large dispersion. The width, blaze angle, and diffraction order of each partition were optimized by vector diffraction analysis. The diffraction loss of the manufactured grating was less than 1.5 dB, and polarization-dependent loss was less than 0.6 dB within a wavelength width of at least 70 nm. It is confirmed that a demultiplexer with the developed chirped grating had a wide passband and low cross talk.     

Highly efficient and aberration-corrected spectrometer for advanced Raman spectroscopy

We designed an asymmetric Czerny-Turner-type spectrometer with a spectral resolution of approximately 1 cm(-1) and a focal length of 500 mm (F/4.1) to improve the aberration properties: (1) coma aberration was corrected by use of a particular incident angle for a condensing mirror based onShafer's equation, (2) astigmatism was corrected by use of a toroidal condensing mirror, (3) the optimum distance was found between a grating and condensing mirror so that the centered light and marginal light at the detector possess the same incident angles to the condensing mirror (the aberration is therefore excellently corrected over the whole detector surfaces), and (4) these optimal configurations are ensured in a wide wavelength between 400 and 800 nm by use of gratings with different grooves. Then the spectrometer was constructed, and the excellent optical properties were confirmed with aligned fiber images and Raman spectra from copper phthalocyanine.     

Aberration-corrected concave grating for the mid-infrared spectrometer aboard the Infrared Telescope in Space

A mechanically ruled aberration-corrected concave grating was developed for use in the low-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer aboard the cryogenically cooled Infrared Telescope in Space. The design and the performance testing of the grating are reported. The spectrometer requires a wide spectral range (4.5-11.7 μm) and a wide field of view (8 × 8 arcmin) with a low wavelength resolution (Δλ ≤ 0.3 μm). The aberration-corrected concave grating provides a flat focal plane with a small aberration in the spatial direction compared with those caused by the finite size of the entrance slit. It also permits a simple design for the spectrometer, which is advantageous for applications in space cryogenic instruments. The measurements of the wavelength resolution and the spatial resolution are shown to be in good agreement with the predicted performance. The diffraction efficiency of the grating is more than 80% at the blaze wavelength (6 μm) and fairly high (>30%) over the entire wavelength range in question. The grating produces polarization of less than 10% for λ < 6.4 μm and of 10-20% for 6.7 μm <λ 9.7 μm. These results indicate the potential applicability of this type of grating to the wide-field IR spectroscopic observations.     

Off-axis pivot mounting for aberration-corrected concave gratings at normal incidence

The off-axis pivot-point mounting for toroidal uniform line-space (TULS) gratings and spherical varied line-space (SVLS) is presented: One scans the spectrum by rotating the grating about the pivot point. The best choice for the location of the point is discussed: For a monochromator the location is chosen such that the grating is moved approximately along the bisector of the subtended angle; for a spectrometer, it is chosen such that the grating is moved approximately along the direction of the incident ray. Minimizing the spectral defocusing caused by the rotation of the grating determines the optimum length of the pivot arm. The pivot points for TULS and SVLS gratings are found to be located on opposite sides with respect to the normal to the grating. In a comparison of the optical performance, the spectral focusing is similar, but the spatial aberrations can be fewer for a SVLS grating.     

High-resolution two-grating spectrometer for dual wavelength spectral imaging

A two-grating high-resolution spectrometer for dual wavelength imaging is demonstrated based on the standard Czerny-Turner mounting with an auxiliary grating and a mirror. A two-dimensional charge-coupled device (CCD) detector in the spectrometer focal plane allows simultaneous detection of two spectral intervals. Each spectrometer grating is driven by a high-precision stepper motor interfaced to a computer via home-made software. The software allows fast tuning of the gratings to a desirable spectral interval anywhere between 200 nm and 800 nm. The spectral interval widths are 2-3 nm for a 'high-resolution' (2400 grooves/mm) grating and 4-5 nm for a 'low-resolution' (1200 grooves/mm) grating. The resolution varies between 0.01 nm and 0.02 nm depending on the grating used. The performance of the spectrometer is demonstrated by detecting spectrally resolved images from a back-illuminated template and from a laser-induced plasma. The spectrometer can be useful for two-line spectroscopic diagnostics or can be expanded for multi-element spectral analysis.     

Fabrication and evaluation of a wideband multilayer laminar-type holographic grating for use with a soft-x-ray flat-field spectrograph in the region of 1.7 keV

A multilayer laminar-type holographic grating having an average groove density of 2400 lines/mm is designed and fabricated for use with a soft-x-ray flat-field spectrograph covering the 0.70-0.75 nm region. A varied-line-spaced groove pattern is generated by the use of an aspheric wavefront recording system, and laminar-type grooves are formed by a reactive ion-etching method. Mo/SiO2 multilayers optimized for the emission lines of Hf-M, Si-K, and W-M are deposited on one of the three designated areas on the grating surface in tandem. The measured first-order diffraction efficiencies at the respective centers of the areas are 18%-20%. The flat-field spectrograph equipped with the grating indicates a spectral linewidth of 8-14 eV for the emission spectra generated from electron-impact x-ray sources.     

Design of a high-resolution extreme-ultraviolet imaging spectrometer with aberration-corrected concave gratings

A high-resolution extreme-ultraviolet imaging spectrometer is designed for the Japanese solar mission Solar-B. A spherical varied-line-space (SVLS) grating and a toroidal uniform-line-space (TULS) grating are chosen as candidates for use in the spectrometer to yield high spectral and spatial resolution within the spectral range 25-29 nm. The spectral image-focusing properties and the mechanical tolerances for fabrication and alignment are compared for the two types of grating. The SVLS design is found to be superior to the TULS design for off-plane spectral images and in ease of fabrication and optical alignment.     

Polarization and efficiency of a concave multilayer grating in the 135-250-Å region and in normal-incidence and SeyaNamioka mounts

A molybdenum/silicon multilayer coating was applied to a holographic ion-etched blazed grating substrate that had 2400 grooves/mm and a radius of curvature of 2.2 m. Scanning probe microscopy yielded the same surface microroughness (5 ? rms) before and after deposition of the multilayer. The efficiency and polarization performance of the grating was measured by synchrotron radiation in the 135-250-? wavelength region. In the second grating order and the second Bragg order of the multilayer coating, the peak normal-incidence efficiency was 7.5% at a wavelength of 147 ?, representing a groove efficiency of 27%. At an angle of incidence of 35°, the polarization performance of the grating was 95%-100% in the 210-250-? wavelength region. In a Seya-Namioka spectrometer mount at an angle of incidence of 30°-40°, the grating is a nearly perfect polarizing optical element in the wavelength bands between 125 and 300 ?, which are covered by the multilayer coating.