title: On-axis beam extinction through diffraction design and analysis.
abstract: To optimize the functions of the surface-relief diffractive optical elements for optical limiters and other applications, we present a systematic design and analysis with numerical illustrations of the transmission properties of different surface-relief phase gratings and Fabry-Perot elements. The spectral response and the tolerance of fabrication errors have been included. An analysis shows that the blazed grating and the echelon grating, a multilevel element as a substitute of the blazed grating, can make the on-axis transmittance very low (less than 1% with one grating) over the broad visible band with a large tolerance of fabrication errors. The results are highly significant for the design of optical-limiting devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688, USA. Lzcai@hotmail.com
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Liu