OPTIMIZED ARTIFICIAL INDEX GRATINGS

Artificial index gratings are binary gratings and consist of a minilat tice of subwavelength microstructures. These gratings are divided into two groups in this paper: a) metallic, and b) dielectric gratings. Op timization techniques used in conjunction with rigorous diffraction th eory are applied to increase the diffraction efficiency of the grating design. The gratings are shown to operate over a wide range of diffra ction angles with high diffraction efficiency for the + 1st blazed dif fracted order. The use of such gratings is limited because of manufact ure to the infrared area.