Binary blazed reflection gratings

A reflection grating with a binary surface profile is presented that has high diffraction efficiency. The measured intensity for the + 1st diffracted order was 77%. The binary grating is composed of a minilattice with feature sizes comparable with the wavelength of the incident light. The overall structure is designed in such a way that it imitates a conventional blazed grating. The grating also has interesting polarization properties. The main part of the TE-polarized light is diffracted into the 1st diffracted order, and most of the TM-polarized light remains in the 0th diffracted order. The measurements of the grating are compared with rigorous diffraction theory and found to be in reasonable agreement.     

Talbot effect with rough reflection gratings

The Talbot effect is analyzed when steel tape gratings are used. These gratings are made on a steel substrate, and, because of the manufacture process, both levels of the grating are rough with different roughness parameters. A theoretical analysis based on Fresnel regime, which considers the statistical properties of roughness, is developed. Analytical formulas that show a decreasing exponential dependence on the intensity in terms of the distance between the grating and the observation plane are obtained, and an experimental verification is also performed.     

Reconstruction of gratings from noisy reflection data

The worst-case error amplification factor in reconstructing a grating from its complex reflection spectrum is shown to be of the order 1/T(min), where T(min) is the minimum transmissivity through the grating. For a uniform grating with coupling coefficient-length product kappaL, the error amplification is exp(2kappaL). The exponential dependence on the grating strength shows that spatial characterization of gratings from a measured reflection spectrum is impossible if the grating is sufficiently strong. For moderately strong gratings, a simple regularization technique is proposed to stabilize the solution of the inverse-scattering problem of computing the grating structure from the reflection spectrum.     

Polarization-insensitive high-dispersion total internal reflection diffraction gratings

We report the first experimental realization of total internal reflection (TIR) diffraction gratings. Performance of less than 0.7-dB insertion loss (IL) for both TE and TM polarizations and 0.5-dB polarization-dependent loss (PDL) are predicted over a 50-nm spectral bandwidth with simultaneous fabrication tolerances on the depth and the duty cycle of binary gratings of +/-5% and +/-14%, respectively. Nineteen gratings were fabricated that met these specifications, yielding IL and PDL values less than 0.6 and 0.2 dB, respectively, across the entire 50-nm bandwidth. Measurements made under the Littrow configuration resulted in high efficiency and low PDL across a 100-nm bandwidth, with up to 100% diffraction efficiency within the experimental measurement error.     

Electrical reflection coefficient and velocity shift for groove gratings

The electrical reflection coefficient r(e) and velocity shift (Deltanu/nu)(e) for grooves has never been formulated. All previous calculations for r(e) and (Deltanu/nu)(e) have used formulas valid for the reflection of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) from an array of conducting strips. However, the discontinuity in electrical boundary conditions leading to these formulas does not exist in groove gratings. A new expression for the electrical reflection coefficient and velocity shift for some material overlays is derived from both the variational principle and perturbation theory. The results for various substrates are compared to show the agreement between the two approaches. The implications of this new formulation for the design of grooved arrays on various materials are discussed, effectively resolving the discrepancy between theory and experiment.     

Spatial distribution of power coupling in self-pumped photorefractive reflection gratings

The spatial distribution of the power transfer achieved by contradirectional two-beam coupling using self-pumped photorefractive reflection gratings is investigated in two materials with different photorefractive gain coefficients, LiNbO3:Fe and KNbO3:Fe. Incremental portions of the volume grating are erased optically by inducing thin optical damage planes, reducing the overall two-beam coupling efficiency. By monitoring the effect of local grating disruption, the distribution of power transfer is spatially resolved throughout the crystal, and the results are found to be in agreement with our theoretical predictions.     

Full characterization of holographic reflection gratings recorded on BB640 emulsions

A complete characterization of unslanted holographic reflection gratings with high diffraction efficiency recorded on ultrafine grain emulsion BB640 has been achieved. By use of a wavelength-dependent absorption coefficient, the diffraction efficiency, the replay wavelength, and the spectral bandwidth of each recording has been obtained. Corresponding index modulation, absorption, and effective thickness have been obtained with high accuracy by fitting the experimental data with Kogelnik's theory.     

High-efficiency dielectric reflection gratings: design, fabrication, and analysis

We report on reflection gratings produced entirely of dielectric materials. This gives the opportunity to enhance the laser damage threshold over that occurring in conventional metal gratings used for chirped-pulse-amplification, high-power lasers. The design of the system combines a dielectric mirror and a well-defined corrugated top layer to obtain optimum results. The rules that have to be considered for the design optimization are described. We optimized the parameters of a dielectric grating with a binary structure and theoretically obtained 100% reflectivity for the -1 order in the Littrow mounting for a 45 degrees angle of incidence. Subsequently we fabricated gratings by structuring a low-refractive-index top layer of a multilayer stack with electron-beam lithography. The multilayer system was fabricated by conventional sputtering techniques onto a flat fused-silica substrate. The parameters of the device were measured and controlled by light scatterometer equipment. We measured 97% diffraction efficiency in the -1 order and damage thresholds of 4.4 and 0.18 J/cm(2) with 5-ns and 1-ps laser pulses, respectively, at a wavelength of 532 nm in working conditions.     

Polarization dependence of diffraction gratings that have total internal reflection facets

The total internal reflection (TIR) grating is an integrated optical diffraction grating designed to achieve high efficiency for the retrodiffracted order by use of total internal reflection twice within a groove of the grating rather than by use of metalized grooves. Numerical calculations are presented for both TE and TM polarizations of incident light. When the TIR grating was used in the -mth-order Littrow mount with m > 13, the diffraction efficiency was found to decrease linearly with 1/m. The polarization dependence of the retrodiffraction efficiency exceeds 3 dB for TIR gratings formed in silica glass (n = 1.5) but is very small for gratings with InP-based technology (n = 3.2).     

All-dielectric reflection gratings: a study of the physical mechanism for achieving high efficiency

The physical mechanism for the all-dielectric reflection gratings to achieve high efficiency in the -1st-order Littrow mounting is studied. The all-dielectric gratings consist of two parts, a surface-relief grating and a highly reflecting dielectric stack. The surface-relief grating sits on top of the reflecting stack. A simple analytical expression for diffraction efficiency is obtained in terms of the S-matrix elements of the two parts. By analyzing the expression we show that the diffraction can be interpreted as the interference of a symmetric wave and an antisymmetric wave. The conditions for achieving high diffraction efficiency are also identified. The analytical results are illustrated by numerical computations.     

Formation of a planar coarse wavelength-division multiplexer and demultiplexer with reflection volume phase gratings

A compact configuration for a coarse wavelength-division multiplexer (CWDM) and a coarse wavelength-division demultiplexer (CWDDM) that are based on reflection volume phase gratings is formed. The design and calculated results for four-channel CWDM and CWDDM configurations in the region near 800 nm are presented. Theoretical predictions are experimentally verified with a four-channel CWDDM whose channels are centered at 775, 800, 825, and 850 nm.     

Transmission and reflection coefficients for surface transverse waves propagating under shorted metal strip gratings

Coupled-mode theory is used for the analysis of surface transverse waves (STWs) propagating under metal-strip gratings in the YZ plane of quartz. Analytical expressions are obtained for the reflection and transmission coefficients of waves propagating on rotated Y-cut substrates of weakly piezoelectric trigonal, tetragonal, or hexagonal crystals. A quadratic dependence of the stopband width on the height-to-period ratio of the electrodes is found. This is an agreement with stopband width measurements. The results can be used in the analysis of STW grating structures, particularly the two-port resonator filter.     

Infrared quarter-wave reflection retarders designed with high-spatial-frequency dielectric surface-relief gratings on a gold substrate at oblique incidence

One- and two-dimensional high-spatial-frequency dielectric surface-relief gratings on a Au substrate are used to design a high-reflectance quarter-wave retarder at 70° angle of incidence and 10.6-μm light wavelength. The equivalent homogeneous anisotropic layer model is used. It is shown that equal and high reflectances (>98.5%) for the p and the spolarizations and quarter-wave retardation can be achieved with two-dimensional ZnS surface-relief gratings. Sensitivities to changes of incidence angle, light wavelength, grating filling factor, and grating layer thickness are considered.     

Circular Fibonacci gratings

We introduce circular Fibonacci gratings (CFGs) that combine the concept of circular gratings and Fibonacci structures. Theoretical analysis shows that the diffraction pattern of CFGs is composed of fractal distributions of impulse rings. Numerical simulations are performed with two-dimensional fast Fourier transform to reveal the fractal behavior of the diffraction rings. Experimental results are also presented and agree well with the numerical results. The fractal nature of the diffraction field should be of great theoretical interest, and shows potential to be further developed into practical applications, such as in laser measurement with wideband illumination.     

Parameter-tolerant binary gratings

A normalized modal analysis of binary gratings under normal TE incidence involving the most condensed set of optogeometrical parameters gives a complete solution to the problem of canceling the 0(th) transmitted order in phase masks of a low-to-high refractive index ratio down to 0.5 with a large tolerance on the corrugation duty cycle or a large spectral bandwidth. The solution is presented in the form of single normalized 3D charts which shed light on the fulfillment of the 0(th)-order cancellation condition: balanced excitation and π-phase difference between two grating modes. Examples of tolerant gratings are given.     

Lensless photography of gratings

A technique is described for the preparation of contact-copy prints of gratings by means of reflex photography. The authors suggest that the method gives increased contrast and definition compared with classical methods of preparing prints.     

Subwavelength triangular random gratings

A subwavelength triangular diffractive element, whose local periods are not regular as an ordinary grating but has random values within a certain range, is proposed as a substitute for a common subwavelength antireflection grating. Its diffraction properties are electromagnetically analysed by the finite-difference time-domain method. Such a random grating shows some interesting properties, including suppression of higher diffraction orders. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio of a signal wave. Also, it is found possible for a random grating to retain a diffraction effciency comparable with that of a regular grating, even when some local periods violate the subwavelength condition, provided that the random local period range is properly chosen. This is another advantage of a random grating over the regular grating in the fabrication process, because upper limitation on feature sizes is partially relieved. In addition, application to general random scattering problems is discussed.     

Polarimetry of transmission gratings

We have investigated the polarizing properties of gold wire gratings in the resonance domain. The partial polarizing properties of 1-μm period gratings in the near IR are then used to orient the wire structure of transmission grating facets parallel to each other by means of an alignment polarimeter technique. The absolute alignment accuracy for these gratings is limited by the influence of the support structure on the orientation of the polarization ellipse. If the polarizing properties of this perturbative component are known, the accuracy can be enhanced by treating the polarization by means of the Mueller calculus.