Binary phase reflective diffractive optical elements. Design and fabrication

The design and fabrication of two binary phase diffractive optical elements are presented. We used iterative design procedures and performed numerical two-dimensional Fourier transforms in order to evaluate the reconstruction pattern. Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction patterns for the same intensity distribution are compared, using computer simulations. The elements were fabricated by configuring either thermally grown silicon dioxide on silicon substrate or aluminium layers. The experimental results are shown to be close to the results obtained by simulations.