Binary phase diffractive optical element photon sieve is fabricated by direct laser ablation of a thin, flexible polyimide substrate with a nanosecond-pulsed ultraviolet (UV) laser. The binary phase photon sieve operates at 633 nm and was designed with 19 rings and a focal length of 400 mm. The total time to fabricate the photon sieves were tens of seconds. Surface properties of the laser-processed areas are examined, and optical performance of the photon sieve is characterized and compared to FDTD simulations. By optimizing the laser fluence and travel distance between laser pulses, features with sub-wavelength surface roughness were achieved. The photon sieve showed good focusing ability with suppressed side-lobes. When the fractional area of photon sieve pinholes was made to approach 50%, the binary sieve diffraction efficiency approached 11%; matching the highest value reported in the literature for a photon sieve. Thus, this work demonstrates both high efficiency, lightweight diffractive optics suitable for space satellite and other applications, with capabilities for low cost and high throughput fabrication.
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