DESIGN OF TALBOT ARRAY ILLUMINATORS FOR PLANAR OPTICS

The planar optical integration of Talbot array illuminators is investi gated. The fractional Talbot distances are calculated from the parabol ic approximation of light propagation. In addition, we discuss distort ions of the diffraction patterns caused by aberrations due to off-axis light propagation and edge effects due to the finite size of the diff raction gratings. Using computer simulations, we estimate the efficien cy of array generation in terms of light concentration ability.