Application of metallic subwavelength gratings for polarization devices

摘要

Abstract: E-beam lithography offers the possibility forfabricating metallic subwavelength gratings for visiblelight which show strong polarization properties. Byusing such gratings and other micro-optical elements(like lenses and diffraction gratings) a new kind ofpolarization detector without mechanical motion isproposed. The basic idea is the use of a specialanalyzing grating element with different gratingdirections (e.g. a circular metallic subwavelengthgrating). We realized both a wavelength-independentpolarimeter and a polarimeter with spectroscopicproperties. Characteristic parameters estimated are theangular resolution of the polarization plane (bestvalue 0.001 degree) and the wavelength resolution (bestvalue 15 nm). !7