Diffraction Grating with Rectangular Grooves Exceeding 80% Diffraction Efficiency

A novel design for a surface relief grating with rectangular grooves is presented. The first reflected diffraction order shows experimentally 84% diffraction efficiency for a metallic grating. The required binary surface relief can be manufactured by using one single microlithographic fabrication step similar to standard processes in microelectronics. Each period of the grating consists of a subwavelength “minilattice” with a variable duty cycle. A theoretical model of the structure is presented and compared to measurements at 10.6 μm wavelength. Applications ranging from deflectors, polarizing beam splitters, variable attenuators to general diffractive components such as kinoforms for laser beam shaping are proposed.