DESIGN OF CONTINUOUS SURFACE-RELIEF PHASE PLATES BY SURFACE-BASED SIMULATED ANNEALING TO ACHIEVE CONTROL OF FOCAL-PLANE IRRADIANCE

High-performance phase plates are of vital concern for controlling the far-field irradiance of laser-fusion systems. Several designs for sol ving this difficult problem have been reported in Optics Letters [e. g ., S. N. Dixit et al., Opt. Lett. 19, 417 (1994)]. We report a surface -based form of simulated annealing that significantly improves the irr adiance control while eliminating the high-scatter problems that have plagued other methods. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.