Wave-plate polarizing beam splitter based on a form-birefringent multilayer grating

Abstract

We have fabricated a novel device that acts as a quarter-wave plate at normal incidence and as a polarizing beam splitter at an angle of incidence of ~40 deg . The device is made from a multilayer (SiO(2) /Si(3)N(4)) surface-relief zeroth-order one-dimensional grating with a period of 0.3 mum . The device is designed for an operating wavelength of 632.8 nm. We designed the device by using rigorous coupled-wave analysis and fabricated it by direct-write electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. Measurements confirmed the performance of the device as a wave plate and as a polarizing beam splitter.

A metal-mirror-based reflecting polarizing beam splitter

“…An interesting multilayer PBS grating has been fabricated, which can also function as a quarter-wave plate [6]. Another kind of PBS grating can separate the TE and TM polarized waves respectively into the 0th and −1st orders in Littrow mounting (reflected wavevector anti-parallel to the incident wavevector), such as polarizing holographic splitters on a photoresist [7], sandwich dielectric PBS gratings [8], and deep-etched fusedsilica PBS gratings with rectangular grooves or triangular grooves [9,10].…”

Broadband IR polarizing beam splitter using a subwavelength-structured one-dimensional photonic-crystal layer embedded in a high-index prism

“…6, ER r is calculated using Eq. (8). Figure 7 shows ER r versus λ for d ¼ 10 μm when interference effects in the PCL are taken into account.…”

“…Conventional PBSs employ bulk crystal optics [1] or multilayer interference coatings that are embedded in a prism [2][3][4][5][6]. More recently, PBSs that use diffraction gratings [7][8][9] and photonic crystals [10,11] have also been introduced.…”

Free-space nano-optical devices and integration: Design, fabrication, and manufacturing

“…While the core concept of form-birefringence based on nanostructured gratings was demonstrated two decades ago [12,18], it has not been commercialized for real applications. The reasons for this are the lack of both a complete design solution that achieves optimal performance and a low-cost nanofabrication method [29,32].…”