R. Liu et al., OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF POLARIZING BEAM-SPLITTERS WITH A BIREFRINGENT SUBSTRATE, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science,and vision., 14(1), 1997, pp. 49-53
We present an optimal approach for designing polarizing beam splitters
made of a sheet of birefringent material. The polarizing beam splitte
r is in the form of a transmission diffraction grating with a surface-
relief structure of periodic sawtooth shape. We describe the necessary
conditions for optimal design and derive the relevant equations for d
etermining the structural parameters of the gratings. We demonstrate h
ow to choose these parameters for a given substrate material to obtain
the best result in the designed polarizing beam splitters. The influe
nce of small variations in the parameters on grating performance is al
so investigated. It is shown that the performance of gratings is quite
sensitive to small changes in the structural parameters. (C) 1997 Opt
ical Society of America.