INTEGRATED DIFFRACTIVE AND REFRACTIVE ELEMENTS FOR SPECTRUM SHAPING

Diffractive elements can be designed for spectrum shaping in the Fouri er or Fresnel plane by iterative methods. It is necessary to use a Fou rier lens and the wavelength for which the diffractive elements were d esigned to get the required spectrum shaping at the Fourier plane. Usi ng a different wavelength will cause chromatic aberration. We deal wit h the combination of refractive and diffractive elements and two or mo re different diffractive elements on the same element to get appropria te beam shaping of light sources with a multiple spectral output. Simu lations are preformed that transform the profile of a He-Ne laser with a Nd:YAG laser source, and shape the trapezoidal beam profile of an e xcimer laser into a Gaussian beam is also considered. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America