Abstract

A general procedure is presented for the design of diffractive optical elements, and scalar diffraction theory is used to apply it to the design of three common diffractive elements: a diffractive lens, an array generator, and a correlation filter. The procedure reveals that most common design techniques can be classified as either direct or indirect optimizations. The key feature of the design procedure is the specification of a suitable performance measure based on the designer’s understanding of the optical system and the fabrication technology used to realize the diffractive element. The use of complex-wave amplitude, scale, and phase freedoms in design is also emphasized.

© 1995 Optical Society of America

Synthesis of paraxial-domain diffractive elements by rigorous electromagnetic theory

Eero Noponen, Jari Turunen, and Frank Wyrowski
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 12(5) 1128-1133 (1995)

Design theory of diffractive elements in the paraxial domain

Frank Wyrowski
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 10(7) 1553-1561 (1993)

Synthetic diffractive optics in the resonance domain

Eero Noponen, Antti Vasara, Jari Turunen, J. Michael Miller, and Mohammad R. Taghizadeh
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 9(7) 1206-1213 (1992)

Limits of scalar diffraction theory and an iterative angular spectrum algorithm for finite aperture diffractive optical element design

Stephen D. Mellin and Gregory P. Nordin
Opt. Express 8(13) 705-722 (2001)

Iterative Fourier transform algorithm with regularization for the optimal design of diffractive optical elements

Hwi Kim, Byungchoon Yang, and Byoungho Lee
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 21(12) 2353-2365 (2004)