Quasi-sinusoidal single-order diffraction transmission grating used in x-ray spectroscopy

A novel design of quasi-sinusoidal single-order diffraction transmission grating (QSTG) is proposed, which can achieve a line density up to thousands line/millimeter as that of traditional transmission gratings with the current level of nanofabrication technique. We fabricate a 1000?line/mm QSTG using the new design approach, and display the calibration results of such QSTG on the soft x-ray beam of synchrotron radiation.     

Higher order harmonics suppression in extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray

The extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray sources are widely used in various domains. Suppressing higher order harmonics and improving spectral purity are significant. This paper describes a novel method of higher order harmonics suppression with single order diffraction gratings in extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray. The principle of harmonic suppression with single order diffraction grating is described, and an extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray non-harmonics grating monochromator is designed based on the single order diffraction grating. The performance is simulated by an optical design software. The emergent beams of a monochromator with different gratings are measured by a transmission grating spectrometer. The results show that the single order diffraction grating can suppress higher order harmonics effectively, and it is expected to be widely used in synchrotron radiation, diagnostics of laser induced plasma, and astrophysics.     

变线距光栅线密度的干涉测量

变线距光栅在同步辐射装置、激光核聚变装置上有着广阔的应用前景，它的制作和检测方法尚未成熟。用干涉法测量变线距光栅的线密度，给出了测量原理、实验中的光路、数据处理的方法、测量结果。在待测光栅表面，衍射光干涉条纹的数量和密度是入射光干涉条纹和倍增后光栅的刻线之差。采用共光路的方案，使光路具有很强的抗干扰能力。用中值滤波消除干涉图像中的干扰。针对不同的干涉条纹，讨论和比较了两种测量方法，提出相对密度不变性。证明了干涉法完全可以用于变线距光栅的线密度测量，并能达到一定的精度，初步解决了检测问题，认为这种方法也可以用于变线密度光栅的加工中。     

Period interaction on diffraction efficiency of blazed transmission gratings

The period interaction on diffraction of the blazed transmission gratings is analyzed with a modified extended scalar theory. For one certain period, the lights reflected from the neighboring structures can be refracted by the grating facets and form two extra fields on the bottom facet of blazed transmission gratings. The effects of this period interaction versus several diffraction orders for a fixed fabrication error of blazed transmission gratings with intermediate structures are discussed for both TE and TM polarizations. The results have been compared with those obtained with finite-difference time-domain method.     

Virtual Gires-Tournois etalons realized with phase-modulated wideband chirped fiber gratings

We propose and demonstrate novel virtual Gires-Tournois (GT) etalons based on fiber gratings. By introducing an additional phase modulation in wideband linearly chirped fiber Bragg gratings, we have successfully generated GT resonance with only one grating. This technique can simplify the fabrication procedure while retaining the normal advantages of distributed etalons, including their full compatibility with optical fiber, low insertion loss, and low cost. Such etalons can be used as dispersion compensation devices in optical transmission systems.     

平面全息光栅刻线密度的倍频式调整方法

刻线密度准确与否直接影响光栅色散及给定波长的衍射方向,进而影响光谱仪器结构设计.为了提高全息光栅刻线密度的制作精度,提出了平面全息光栅刻线密度的倍频式调整方法.将给定刻线密度的基准光栅放在干涉场曝光区域内,调节光束干涉角,干涉场曝光光束经基准光栅衍射后,根据调整光栅刻线密度的不同选择不同的衍射级次相互叠加形成莫尔条纹,...     

Polarizing beam splitter of two-layer dielectric rectangular transmission gratings in Littrow mounting

We theoretically investigated the design of polarizing beam splitters (PBS) of two-layer dielectric rectangular transmission gratings in Littrow mounting. The PBS grating is aimed to separate TE and TM polarized waves into two different transmitted orders, i.e. the 0th and −1st orders. The polarization-dependent diffraction process is analyzed by using a simplified modal method. The mode reflection and transmission at the interface of the two layers are illustrated. Design equations are given based on the average mode indices of the even and odd modes inside the grating region, which are verified by using rigorous coupled wave analysis. Moreover, with simulated annealing algorithm, two kinds of two-layer PBS gratings are optimized for operation over the C-band (1520-1570 nm). Compared with the single-layer transmission PBS gratings, such two-layer scheme exhibits a great flexibility of design. The PBSs of two-layer dielectric transmission gratings should be useful for practical applications.     

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.     

高密度光盘存储中的梯形光栅设计和误差分析

为了符合实际加工情形，推导了梯形相位光栅衍射效率，与矩形光栅作了比较，设计其用作高密度光盘存储光学头分光束器件时的各参数，并分析推导了系统和随机加工误差对光栅性能的影响及设计原则。     

Direct laser fabrication of blaze gratings in fused silica

Results of our investigations on direct laser fabrication of blaze gratings in fused silica using a special fluorine-laser mask projection technology allowing to produce plane and smooth reflecting areas and optimum blaze geometry will be presented. In particular, it will be shown that gratings with nearly optimum blaze geometry and relatively low surface roughness of the reflecting areas can be produced. The technique is a one-step method and has a high variability with regard to grating geometry and also substrate materials. We use masks made of tantalum foil, projected onto a fused silica substrate surface with a demagnification ratio of 26:1 and also novel scattering masks made of calcium fluoride. In these masks, up to 25 times smaller transmission apertures can be manufactured allowing thus grating constants in the range of a few μm. The average surface roughness of the reflecting areas along a blaze grating line was measured to be R _a=38 nm without any surface smoothing. The maximum variance of the blaze angle within one grating is about 0.5 degree.     

Origin and System Effects of Polarization Mode Dispersion in Chirped Bragg Gratings

Polarization mode dispersion of chirped Bragg gratings is analyzed in terms of key birefringence phenomena and impact on telecommunication systems performance. The influence on polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of fiber birefringence, grating chromatic dispersion, and ripples of the group delay curve is pointed out. Polarization mode dispersion influence on systems performance is investigated by numerical simulations and transmission experiments at 10 Gbit/s. The deterministic nature of Bragg gratings PMD determines a moderate, upper-limited system penalty for a transmission line employing a single compensating device. However, in the case of broadband components, a non-negligible PMD penalty may be observed due to the difficulty of controlling accurately the group delay linearity.     

Origin and System Effects of Polarization Mode Dispersion in Chirped Bragg Gratings

Polarization mode dispersion of chirped Bragg gratings is analyzed in terms of key birefringence phenomena and impact on telecommunication systems performance. The influence on polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of fiber birefringence, grating chromatic dispersion, and ripples of the group delay curve is pointed out. Polarization mode dispersion influence on systems performance is investigated by numerical simulations and transmission experiments at 10 Gbit/s. The deterministic nature of Bragg gratings PMD determines a moderate, upper-limited system penalty for a transmission line employing a single compensating device. However, in the case of broadband components, a non-negligible PMD penalty may be observed due to the difficulty of controlling accurately the group delay linearity.     

Novel B/Ge codoped photosensitive fibres and their dispersion compensation applications

A novel B/Ge codoped fibre was proposed, which also has photosensitive depressed inner cladding. The transmission spectrum of written grating in this fibre verified its strong photosensitivity and suppression of cladding mode coupling. After taking the diffraction into account, a more exact equation of the Bragg wavelength tuning theory of phase mask method was given. Then 8 cascaded fibre Bragg gratings centered at different wavelengths were successfully written with 248 nm KrF excimer laser and one piece of 1067 nm phase mask. By tilting the phase mask, chirp was also written in each grating. At last, it compensated the dispersion of 44 km single mode fibre in the 8 × 10 Gbit/s wavelength division multiplexing system successfully.     

Thin and thick diffraction gratings: Thin matrix decomposition method

A brief review of the properties of transmission diffraction gratings is presented. Two types of gratings will be analyzed: thin and volume gratings explaining how the efficiency of the different orders that propagate inside the gratings can be calculated in both cases. For thin diffraction gratings the so-called amplitude transmittance method is applied in order to get the amplitude of the different orders, whereas in the case of volume gratings more complex methods are needed, such as Coupled Wave or modal theories. We will comment on the thin matrix decomposition method (TMDM), firstly proposed by Alferness, which gives a very intuitive approach and connects the properties of thin gratings to the properties of volume ones. The thin matrix decomposition method consists in dividing the volume grating in a number of thin gratings and applying the amplitude transmittance method to each thin grating. In this way the output of a grating will be considered as the input of the next and any individual grating can be treated by the amplitude transmittance method. The novelty of this work is that a comparison is made between the analytical expressions obtained by Alferness using the TMDM with the numerical results obtained using the coupled wave (CW) and rigorous coupled wave (RCW) theories for the efficiencies of the zero, first and second order when a plane wave incides onto a sinusoidal diffracion grating at the second on-Bragg replay angular condition.     

折射率平面波导光栅耦合特性分析

利用波导系统等效网络分析法,分析了折射率平面波导光栅的耦合特性.计算了影响光栅输入输出耦合的重要参数——损耗系数α,并通过数值计算分析了平面波导光栅各参数对损耗系数的影响.     

Broadband Terahertz Polarization Converter and Asymmetric Transmission Based on Coupled Dielectric‐Metal Grating

Coupled dielectric‐metal gratings are investigated for broadband terahertz (THz) wave polarization conversion and asymmetric transmission by the experiments and numerical simulations, which are composed of the subwavelength Si grating and metallic wire grating layers. The dielectric grating layer with a large artificial birefringence and low dispersion is employed as a phase engineered waveplate, and the metal wire grating arranged with a 45° angle to the dielectric grating is utilized as a high‐efficiency polarizer. Due to the subwavelength integration, this coupled grating presents a local resonance coupling mechanism between dielectric and metal gratings, which greatly enhances the polarization rotation and expands the bandwidth, not a simple combination with dielectric and metallic gratings. The results demonstrate that a broadband asymmetric transmission with an extinction ratio of 30dB from 0.2 to 1.2 THz is achieved and the highest transmission of 90% can be obtained. It provides a simple way towards practical applications for THz artificial dispersion materials, polarization control and asymmetric transmission.     

使用辅助光栅的平面变间距全息光栅加工理论研究

变间距全息光栅具有自聚焦和消像差功能,是高分辨率光谱仪与同步辐射单色器中的重要元件。研究了使用平面等间距光栅产生非球面波,记录平面变间距全息光栅的方法。根据几何光学的光线追迹理论,推导了光栅参量的四阶解析表达式。并基于费马原理,提出了记录光路的光线追迹数值算法。应用所推导的光栅参量四阶表达式,仿真设计了变间距全息光栅。通过合理选择记录参量,可以避免光栅基底受到零级及高阶衍射光场的影响。设计结果表明,理论光栅线密度与要求值相当符合;经光线追迹数值算法验证,解析表达式的展开误差在整个记录区域内小于1.5线;考虑到实际加工工艺允许误差,使用辅助光栅的记录光路对记录参量的误差并不敏感;设计实例证明了解析表达式的有效性,以及使用辅助光栅的记录光路的优越性。     

Efficient high-order diffraction of extreme-ultraviolet light and soft x-rays by nanostructured volume gratings

We report what is believed to be the first demonstration that volume gratings diffract extreme-ultraviolet light (EUV) or soft x-rays into high orders approximately an order of magnitude more efficiently than predicted by classical thin-grating theory. At the 13-nm wavelength, copolymer grating structures with 200-nm period and aspect ratios of ~10:1 achieved diffraction efficiencies of 11.2%, 15.3%, 11.5%, and 9.1% in the orders m of 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. In addition, the measured transmission spectra are consistent with electrodynamic calculations by coupled-wave theory. High-order diffraction can now be employed for substantially improved diffractive EUV and x-ray optics, e.g., highly resolving diffractive lenses and large-aperture condensers.     

High performance diffraction gratings made by e-beam lithography

Gratings are essential components in different high performance optical set-ups such as spectrometers in space missions or ultrashort-pulse laser compression arrangements. Often such kinds of applications require gratings operating close to the technological accessible limits of today??s fabrication technology. Typical critical parameters are the diffraction efficiency and its polarization dependency, the wave-front error introduced by the grating, and the stray-light performance. Additionally, space applications have specific environmental requirements and laser application typically demand a high damage threshold. All these properties need to be controlled precisely on rather large grating areas. Grating sizes of 200?mm or even above are not unusual anymore. The paper provides a review on how such high performance gratings can be realized by electron-beam lithography and accompanying technologies. The approaches are demonstrated by different examples. The first example is the design and fabrication of the grating for the Radial-Velocity-Spectrometer of the GAIA-mission of the ESA. The second grating is a reflective pulse compression element with no wavelength resonances due to an optimized design. The last example shows a three level blazed grating in resonance domain with a diffraction efficiency of approximately 86?%.     

透射式光栅光谱仪摄谱性质的研究

本文从理论和实验上探讨了透射光栅的光栅参数和实验几何条件对于光栅的衍射效率、色散、光谱对称性及散射本底的影响,对于这些摄谱性质的了解,将有助于实验数据的分析。