Highly polarization-selective diffractive optical elements in calcite with an index-matching gap material

Nancy Nieuborg; Andrew G. Kirk; Birgit Morlion; Hugo Thienpont; Irina P. Veretennicoff

doi:10.1117/12.274409

15 May 1997 Highly polarization-selective diffractive optical elements in calcite with an index-matching gap material

Nancy Nieuborg, Andrew G. Kirk, Birgit Morlion, Hugo Thienpont, Irina P. Veretennicoff

Proceedings Volume 3010, Diffractive and Holographic Device Technologies and Applications IV; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.274409
Event: Photonics West '97, 1997, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) have proven to be useful components in optical interconnection and routing systems, especially where volume, weight and design flexibility are important. We show that it is possible to increase the functionality of DOEs by making them polarization-selective. For the fabrication of these polarization-selective DOEs we have used two wet etched anisotropic calcite substrates, joined together at their etched surfaces with their optical axes mutually perpendicular. An index-matching polymer was used to fill the gap between the two substrates and ensures that each of two incident orthogonal polarizations sees only one of the two etched surface relief patterns. We show that such structure is much less sensitive to fabrication errors than earlier presented configurations with an air gap, and we explain the restrictions on the choice of the index-matching polymer. Furthermore we present the experimental results we have obtained for polarization-selective on- and off-axis Fresnel lenses with different focal points dependant on the polarization of the incident beam, polarization-selective gratings which deflect an incident beam in different directions dependant on polarization, and polarization- selective computer-generated holograms generating different images in their Fourier plane for different polarizations. For these binary-phase elements we have measured first order diffraction efficiencies ranging from 30% to 40% and contrasts between the two polarizations up to 500:1.

Citation Download Citation

Nancy Nieuborg, Andrew G. Kirk, Birgit Morlion, Hugo Thienpont, and Irina P. Veretennicoff "Highly polarization-selective diffractive optical elements in calcite with an index-matching gap material", Proc. SPIE 3010, Diffractive and Holographic Device Technologies and Applications IV, (15 May 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.274409

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