BINARY-MASK GENERATION FOR DIFFRACTIVE OPTICAL-ELEMENTS USING MICROCOMPUTERS

A new technique for generation of binary masks for the fabrication of diffractive optical elements is investigated. This technique, which us es commercially available desktop-publishing hardware and software in conjunction with a standard photoreduction camera, is much faster and less expensive than the conventional methods. The short turnaround tim e and low cost should give researchers a much greater degree of flexib ility in the field of binary optics and enable wider application of di ffractive-optics technology. Techniques for generating optical element s by using standard software packages that produce PostScript output a re described. An evaluation of the dimensional fidelity of the mask re production from design to its realization in photoresist is presented.