POLARIZING MIRROR ABSORBER FOR VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS BASED ON A SILICONSUBWAVELENGTH GRATING - DESIGN AND FABRICATION/

A one-dimensional 280-nm period silicon grating designed to exhibit po larization-dependent reflection or antireflection behavior at visible wavelengths has been fabricated and tested. For normally incident 575- nm light, this grating reflects less than 3% of the incident radiation polarized perpendicular to the grating grooves and approximately 23% of the orthogonal polarization. To demonstrate the grating's broadband characteristics, reflectance measurements are presented over the free -space wavelength range 475 nm < lambda(0) < 800 nm, for angles of inc idence in the range 0 degrees < theta < 40 degrees, for polarization p arallel and perpendicular to the grating grooves, and for planes of in cidence parallel and perpendicular to the grooves. A description of th e fabrication process is also given. (C) 1998 Optical Society of Ameri ca.