<title>Polarization modifying kinoforms</title>

Abstract

We discuss polarizing kinoforms -- diffractive optical elements that modulate only the polarization of incident light and form desired intensity distribution at a pregiven distance. The surface microrelief of such optical elements has the form of a binary curvilinear diffraction grating with a constant period less than wavelength. The energy efficiency of the elements is equivalent to that of conventional multilevel phase kinoforms.