<title>Diffractive optical elements with polarization multiplexing</title>

Abstract

In this paper a method is introduced which makes it possible to choose the paraxial field distribution generated by a diffractive element independently for two perpendicular polarization directions. For that the local transmission of a binary element is controlled by metal-stripe subwavelength gratings of different grating directions fabricated by electron beam lithography. The method based upon the property of these gratings to influence the intensity of an incident wave dependent on their polarization direction. In first experiments such diffractive amplitude elements have been fabricated successfully with the electron beam lithography system LION LV1.