META 2021, META'12

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High performance diffraction gratings made by e-beam lithography
Uwe D. Zeitner, Maria Oliva, Frank Fuchs, Dirk Michaelis, Tino Benkenstein, Torsten Harzendorf, Ernst-Berhnard Kley

Last modified: 2011-12-03

Abstract


Gratings are essential components in different high performance optical set-ups such as spectrometers in space missions or ultra-short-pulse laser compression arrangements. Often such kinds of applications require gratings operating close to the technological accessible limits of today’s fabrication technology. Typical critical parameters are the diffraction efficiency and its polarization dependency, the wave-front error introduced by the grating, and stray-light performance. Additionally space applications have specific environmental requirements and laser application typically requires a high damage threshold. All these properties need to be controlled precisely on sometimes rather large grating areas. Gratings with extensions of up to 200mm or above are not unusual anymore. The talk provides an overview on how such high performance gratings can be realized by electron-beam lithography. This approach is demonstrated by different examples. One of them is the design and fabrication of the grating for the Radial-Velocity-Spectrometer of the GAIA-mission of the ESA.

Keywords


diffraction grating, effective index material