Coupling of surface roughness to the performance of computer-generated holograms.

Computer-generated holograms (CGHs), such as those used in optical testing, are created by etching patterns into an optical substrate. Imperfections in the etching can cause small scale surface roughness that varies across the pattern. The variation in this roughness affects the phase and amplitude of the wavefronts in the various diffraction orders. A simplified model is developed and validated that treats the scattering loss from the roughness as an amplitude effect. We demonstrate the use of this model for engineering analysis and provide a graphical method for understanding the application. Furthermore, we investigate the magnitude of this effect for the application of optical testing and show that the effect on measurement accuracy is limited to 1 nm for typical CGHs.