PARTIALLY ETCHED PHASE-TRANSFORMING OPTICAL ELEMENT

摘要

To provide a phase-transforming optical element which is substantially transparent over an operational wavelength range including a design vacuum wavelength λ.SOLUTION: An optical element (transmissive or reflective) is provided, comprising two different optical media arranged in discrete volumes arranged along a layer. The discrete volumes are arranged to approximate a desired phase function (typically modulo 2π) and are smaller than an operational wavelength to provide a range of phase delays needed to adequately approximate the desired phase function.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 23