title: Achromatic wave plates for optical pickup units fabricated by use of imprint lithography.
abstract: We report achromatic form-birefringence wave plates for optical pickup units. Material dispersion and structure dispersion are balanced in a rigorous multilayer design. A trilayer grating using SiN(x)/SiO(y)N(z)/SiO2 provides easily accessible process control points and relaxed fabrication tolerance. We demonstrate precise patterning by using nanoimprint lithography on UV-curable polymers, alleviating a major fabrication challenge. The achromatic wave plates exhibit 90+/-3 degrees retardance and >95% transmittance as measured by a Mueller matrix method at wavelengths of 640-800 nm.
authors.affiliation: NanoOpto Corporation, 1600 Cottontail Lane, Somerset, New Jersey 08873, USA. ddeng@nanoopto.com
authors.forename: Xuegong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jian J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Sciortino
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu