Design of high-efficiency diffraction gratings based on total internal reflection for pulse compressor

We present designs of high-efficiency compression grating based on total internal reflection (TIR) for picosecond pulse laser at 1053 nm. The setup is devised by directly etching gratings into the bottom side of a prism so that light can successfully enter (or exit) the compression grating. Dependence of the −1 order diffraction efficiencies on the constructive parameters is analyzed for TE- and TM-polarized incident light at Littrow angle by using Fourier modal method in order to obtain optimal grating structure. The electric field enhancement within the high-efficiency TIR gratings is regarded as another criterion to optimize the structure of the TIR gratings. With the criterion of high diffraction efficiency, low electric field enhancement and sufficient manufacturing latitude, TIR compression gratings with optimized constructive parameters are obtained for TE- and TM-polarized incident light, respectively. The grating for TE-polarized light exhibits diffraction efficiencies higher than 0.95 within 23 nm bandwidth and relatively low square of electric field enhancement ratio of 5.7. Regardless of the internal electric field enhancement, the grating for TM-polarized light provides diffraction efficiencies higher than 0.95 within 42 nm bandwidth. With compact structure, such TIR compression gratings made solely of fused silica should be of great interest for application to chirped pulse amplification (CPA) systems.     

13.4nm软X射线干涉光刻透射光栅的优化设计

基于严格的矢量耦合波方法,结合纳米级光栅实际制作工艺,定量分析了在13.4 nm软X射线(TE偏振)正入射条件下,光栅材料、厚度、占空比、梯形浮雕底角大小等因素对光栅一级衍射效率的影响.结果表明,在此波段处,Si3N4、Cr、Au浮雕的相位作用对光栅衍射起重要影响,其中非金属材料Si3N4比金属材料Cr、Au的相位作用更明显.最后优化得到了用Si(或Si3N4)做衬底的si3N4、Cr、Au光栅,分析结果显示,其一级衍射效率优于目前用于13.4 nm软X射线干涉光刻的Cr、Si3N4复合光栅.     

自支撑透射光栅的设计、制作和测试

采用标量衍射理论和严格耦合波理论分别计算和讨论了金自支撑透射光栅的衍射效率随波长和光栅周期变化的情况并设计了光栅的结构参数.制作了周期为300 nm、线宽/周期比为055、厚度为200 nm、总面积为1 mm×1 mm、有效面积比为65%的金自支撑透射光栅.在国家同步辐射实验室检测了该光栅在55—38 nm波长范围内的绝对衍射效率.检测结果表明所制作的光栅在8 nm附近具有接近10%的最大衍射效率,并且该光栅对于波长15—35 nm范围内的极紫外波段具有基本稳定的衍射效率. 关键词： 自支撑透射光栅 电子束光刻 电镀     

Peculiarities of spontaneous grating generation in light-sensitive waveguide layers during holographic grating formation

The generation of spontaneous (noise) gratings during the simultaneous formation of a holographic grating in thin (on the order of the cutoff thickness of the TE₀ waveguide mode) AgCl-Ag films by two laser beams with λ = 532 nm and polarization vectors that make an angle of 45° with the plane of incidence have been studied. The electron microscopy images and diffraction patterns have revealed a significant difference of the spontaneous-grating structure from the structure obtained under irradiation by one laser beam. The spontaneous gratings have a significant spread in the directions of their wave vector, and the diffraction pattern (recorded using a probe beam with λ = 337 nm) has the form of a bundle of diverging arcs that intersect at one point. This difference is caused by self-diffraction from the holographic grating, which is responsible for the main diffraction peaks with odd orders, the growth of spontaneous gratings because of the interference of the beams diffracted by the holographic grating with the waveguide TE₀ modes scattered in the film, and silver transport to the interference minima. The diffraction patterns are quantitatively analyzed and the period of the new (formed under two-beam irradiation) spontaneous gratings is calculated. The calculation results are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Wide-field-angle behavior of blazed-binary gratings in the resonance domain

Blazed-binary gratings for which a blazed effect with binary etches is achieved under normal incidence offer first-order diffraction efficiencies larger than those of blazed-échelette gratings in the resonance domain [Opt. Lett. 23 1081 (1998)]. We provide further insight into the behavior of blazed-binary gratings and show that they operate efficiently under symmetrical mounting and over a wide field-angle interval. These properties are illustrated with theoretical and experimental results obtained for an approximately 1000-line/mm grating at 633 nm.     

SiC/W/Ir multilayer-coated grating for enhanced efficiency in 50-100 nm wavelength range in Seya-Namioka mount

A broadband [SiC/W/Ir](2) multilayer coating was deposited onto a diffraction grating to enhance the grating efficiency in the 50-100 nm wavelength range in a Seya-Namioka mount. The holographic ion-beam etched grating had a laminar profile with 1200 lines/mm. The coating was designed by using the subquarterwave multilayer theory. The measurement results show that the efficiency in the -1st diffraction order is greater than 9.3% throughout the wavelength range of 50-100 nm, which is obviously higher than that of single-layer gratings with SiC, Ir, or Au coatings.     

偶氮液晶聚合物薄膜的二维偏振全息记录

利用偏振全息记录的方法在一种含偶氮侧链的液晶聚合物薄膜中写入了二维偏振光栅.实验采用两束正交偏振的532 nm线偏光作为写入光,在样品同一点上分别记录了相互垂直的两个一维偏振光栅,继而对所构成的二维偏振光栅的特性进行了研究.实验结果表明：二维光栅的衍射效率比一维光栅低,其偏振特性是两个一维光栅元特性的叠加;二维光栅衍射效率对入射光偏振态的依赖性和光栅的偏振转换性质来源于材料中线双折射和圆双折射的共同作用. 关键词： 偏振全息 二维光栅 偶氮液晶聚合物     

Design of ultrabroadband internal reflection gratings with high efficiency

A high-efficiency, ultrabroadband dielectric internal reflection grating with rhombus-shaped grooves is designed by a rigorous coupled-wave analysis, and an effective method for predicting spectral bandwidths of gratings from their efficiency maps is presented. The grating can be fabricated from a single dielectric material, and its reflection diffraction efficiency of the -1st order can reach more than 0.99. More importantly, an ultrabroadband top-hat diffraction spectrum with efficiency exceeding 0.98 over 170 nm wavelength wide is achieved, which makes the gratings suitable for applications associated with broadband illumination, such as ultrashort pulses.     

Design of High-Efficiency Diffraction Gratings Based on Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis for 800nm Wavelength

We report on the design of a high diffraction efficiency multi-layer dielectric grating with wide incident angle and broad bandwidth for 80Ohm. The optimized grating can achieve 〉 95% diffraction efficiency in the first order at an incident angle of 5° from Littrow and a wavelength from 77Ohm to 83Ohm, with peak diffraction efieieney of 〉 99.5% at 80Ohm. The electric field distribution of the optimized multi-layer dielectric grating within the gratings ridge is 1.3 times enhancement of the incidence light, which presents potential high laser resistance ability. Because of its high-effieieney, wide incident, broad bandwidth and potential high resistance ability, the multi-layer dielectric grating should have practical application in Ti：sapphire laser systems.     

Highly resolved EUV beam-foil spectra of silicon

Spectra of foil-excited ions at tandem energies in the EUV region show many unclassified lines. In order to provide a basis for term analysis, high resolution spectra of Si are taken using a ruled 600 l/mm grating in 3^rd diffraction order and two holographic gratings of 1,200 l/mm resp. 3,600 l/mm in first diffraction order. With the latter grating the resolution power of a 2.2 m grazing-incidence monochromator is sufficient to measure fine-structure splittings of inter-shell transitions of O VI–O VIII and Si X–Si XII in the wavelength rangeλ < 20 nm. The performance of the gratings is demonstrated.     

Five-port beam splitter of a single-groove grating

A single-groove grating for five-port TE-polarization beam splitting under normal incidence at the wavelength of 1550 nm is presented. The transmitted diffraction efficiency of the gratings is over 94.5% with uniformity better than 2%. A physical view of diffraction inside the grating is presented by the simplified modal method(SMM).Initial parameters of the grating profiles are obtained by use of SMM and then optimized by employing rigorous coupled-wave analysis and the simulated annealing algorithm.     

Light scanner based on a viscoelastic stretchable grating

We present a new technique for light scanning by use of viscoelastic-based deformable phase diffraction gratings. Mechanical stretching of the grating permits control of its spatial period, and thus the orders of diffraction can be spatially deflected. In the experiments the viscoelastic gratings with triangular and rectangular profiles have been characterized at lambda = 633 nm. It is demonstrated that the reversible elongation can exceed 20% of the initial length. For the triangular profile grating, the diffraction angle of the first order changed from 6.6 degrees to 5.4 degrees while the diffraction efficiency remained almost constant at approximately 17%. Dynamic scanning of a laser beam at frequencies of approximately 1 kHz is demonstrated by use of electromechanically driven viscoelastic gratings.     

软X射线位相型金透射光栅的设计与制作

根据衍射光栅的标量理论,计算并讨论了金透射光栅在软X波段衍射效率对光栅厚度和占宽比的依赖关系.结果表明,选择合适的光栅槽深和占宽比,高达 21.9%的衍射效率可能被获得,远高于振幅型光栅的+1级衍射效率10.14%.通过全息光刻与电镀转移技术制作的位相型金透射光栅由300nm的聚酰亚胺薄膜支撑,光栅槽深200nm,占宽比为0.55,周期为1μm,面积为20mm×5mm.在国家同步辐射装置上,测得其+1级透射衍射效率在波长λ=7.425nm时获得最大值,约为16%. 关键词： 透射位相光栅 全息光刻 电镀     

高密度相位光栅的偏振选择性

高密度光栅具有与传统光栅不同的性质,其衍射特性往往是偏振相关的。本文针对1550nm波长TE/TM偏振入射光和0.5的光栅占空比,利用严格耦合波分析数值计算了不同光栅周期下0级及-1级的衍射效率。研究表明,相比周期为1550nm的光栅,当周期为1200nm时,偏振相关衍射效应明显增强,当光栅周期为890nm时,TE偏振光的衍射效率随着光栅深度呈正余弦变化,而TM偏振光的衍射效率始终集中在0级,具有偏振选择性。通过模式方法,利用模式中的有效折射率概念,研究了不同周期下被入射光所激发的两种光波模式通过光栅区域传播所累积的相位差;基于双光束干涉,模拟了0级和-1级的衍射效率。结果表明,利用严格耦合波分析的数值计算结果符合模式方法的理论预期,对于高密度相位光栅的偏振选择性给予了合理的物理机制解释。     

Unidirectional transmission realized by two nonparallel gratings made of isotropic media

We realize a unidirectional transmission by cascading two nonparallel gratings (NPGs) made of isotropic, lossless, and linear media. For a pair of orthogonal linear polarizations, one of the gratings is designed as a polarizer, which is a reflector for one polarization and a transmitter for the other; another grating is designed as a polarization converter, which converts most of one polarized incident wave into another polarized transmitted wave. It is demonstrated by numerical calculation that more than 85% of the incident light energy can be transmitted with less than 1% transmission in the opposite direction for linearly polarized light at normal incidence, and the relative bandwidth of the unidirectional transmission is nearly 9%. The maximum transmission contrast ratio between the two directions is 62 dB. Unlike one-way diffraction grating, the transmitted light of the NPGs is collinear with the incident light, but their polarizations are orthogonal.     

Spectral resolution enhancement without increasing the number of grooves in grating-based spectrometers

A simple scheme of an optical setup to enhance the spectral resolution of diffraction gratings without increasing the number of grooves is presented. A plane-parallel mirror pair, which consists of a 100% reflectivity mirror and a 50% reflectivity mirror, is placed upon a grating. For certain values of the mirror gap and the angle between the grating and the mirrors, the effective size of the grating doubles, as does the resolution. Using a grating of 830 grooves/mm and a narrow-band diode laser that is tunable around 773 nm, we experimentally demonstrated an enhancement of the resolution by a factor of 2.     

光折变多重体光栅的制作及应用

根据光折变多重体光栅的滤波原理,在10×10×10 mm3的LiNbO3∶Fe晶体中利用循环曝光法写入了光栅波矢夹角为0.037°且衍射效率均衡的8重体光栅,实验上证实了光写入多重光折变体光栅应用于波分复用系统的可行性.利用LiNbO3∶Fe晶体制作了一个原理性双通道波分复用器,成功地实现了对相同方向入射的波长分别为635 nm和650 nm的两束光的有效分离,并根据布喇格条件,将光折变体光栅应用于光波波长的测量,测量精度可达10 pm量级.     

Strong phase-controlled fiber Bragg gratings for dispersion compensation

Dispersion-compensating fiber Bragg gratings with approximately 99.9% reflectivity that are made by continuous apodization and phase control are demonstrated. These strong dispersion-compensating gratings provide precision second-order, third-order, or even more complex dispersion compensation, as well as sufficient transmission isolation to be used at add-drop stages without additional filtering. A 99.84% grating with a constant approximately 700-ps/nm dispersion and a 99.94% grating with dispersion varying linearly from 1000 to -1000 ps/nm are demonstrated.     

Genetic algorithm-based design method for multilevel anisotropic diffraction gratings

We developed a method for the design of multilevel anisotropic diffraction gratings based on a genetic algorithm. The method is used to design the multilevel anisotropic diffraction gratings based on input data that represent the output from the required grating. The validity of the proposed method was evaluated by designing a multilevel anisotropic diffraction grating using the outputs from an orthogonal circular polarization grating. The design results corresponded to the orthogonal circular polarization grating structures that were used to provide outputs to act as the input data for the process. Comparison with existing design methods shows that the proposed method can reduce the number of human processes that are required to design multilevel anisotropic diffraction gratings. Additionally, the method will be able to design complex structures without any requirement for subsequent examination by a human designer. The method can contribute to the development of optical elements by designing multilevel anisotropic diffraction gratings.     

High-order diffraction suppression using modulated groove position gratings

Conventional diffraction gratings composed of a series of equally spaced slits suffer from wavelength overlapping caused by high-order diffraction. Here modulated groove position gratings (MGPGs) are proposed to significantly suppress the high diffraction orders. Both numerical solution and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of MGPGs. The suppression ratio is determined by the number of grating grooves used. By using an MGPG with 10,000 grooves, a suppression ratio as high as 18,000 can be obtained. In addition, the minimum linewidth is kept to 1/4 of the grating period, which enables grating realization with high line density employing today's nanofabrication technology. Our results should be of great interest in both diffraction grating theory and applications, particularly due to MGPGs' applicability in a wide wavelength range and realizability with high line density.