REFLECTING POLARIZING BEAM SPLITTER

We propose and experimentally demonstrate the use of metal-covered lam ellar relief gratings as a polarizing beam splitter operating at a sin gle wavelength near Littrow incidence. We report the characteristics o f a grating produced by holography and reactive ion etching that was c alculated for operation as beam Splitter at lambda = 633 nm (for a He- Ne laser). (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.