title: High-efficiency 1.5 microm thick optical axis grating and its use for laser beam combining.
abstract: We demonstrate an optical axis grating (OAG) recorded in a nematic liquid crystal that yields a higher than 80% diffraction efficiency and over 800:1 switching contrast between diffraction orders for a laser beam of a red wavelength in a material layer only 1.5 microm thick. The grating was used for combining two laser beams with high efficiency. These observations prove the feasibility of new generation high-efficiency diffractive optical components, which are most promising for infrared and high-power applications owing to their enhanced transparency and reduced thermal effects in thin material layers.
authors.affiliation: Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Company, Winter Park, FL 3278, USA.
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Serak
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tabiryan
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zeldovich