Potential applications of diffractive optical elements

Abstract

In this project, the production of Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE in short) and its applications will be given. The DOE can be designed by an optimizing program, which called BS Converter, and the designs can then be confirmed by software, which called Fresnel. As a result, we can design the DOE with such program and software for entertainment and advertising purpose. We realized that the diffraction efficiency is restricted by the number of levels of the design pattern and the etching depth during the fabrication. However, it is very difficult to fabricate multi-level patterns. Therefore, the two-level Dammann Gratings were used as it is much easy to create. It can give a high efficiency and a uniform intensity distribution of spot array. With the use of Dammann Gratings, it can work as beam splitter. On the other hand, we can modify the design of the Dammann Gratings to phase plates so that it can be used in the dynamic optical coupler. It is hoped that the results of this project are useful in further studies of Diffractive Optical Elements.