Design, fabrication, and characterization of form-birefringent multilayer polarizing beam splitter

Polarizing beam splitters that use the anisotropic spectral reflectivity (ASR) characteristic of high-spatialfrequency multilayer binary gratings have been designed, fabricated, and characterized. Using the ASR effect with rigorous coupled-wave analysis, we design an optical element that is transparent for TM polarization and reflective for TE polarization at an arbitrary incidence angle and operational wavelength. The experiments with the fabricated element demonstrate a high efficiency (.97%), with polarization extinction ratios higher than 220:1 at a wavelength of 1.523 mm over a 20° angular bandwidth by means of the ASR characteristics of the device. These ASR devices combine many useful characteristics, such as compactness, low insertion loss, high efficiency, and broad angular and spectral bandwidth operations. © 1997 Optical Society of America [S0740-3232(97)01107-1]