Consequences of the Kramers-Kronig relations for light diffraction on thick gratings

Opt Lett. 2004 Aug 1;29(15):1721-3. doi: 10.1364/ol.29.001721.

Abstract

Diffraction of monochromatic light on a grating leads to the attenuation of the transmitted beam of diffraction order zero. In the case of a thick grating the diffraction efficiency, and hence the effective attenuation coefficient, is a fast-varying function of the Bragg mismatch angle. According to Kramers-Kronig theory, the transmitted beam encounters a phase shift that also depends on the mismatch angle. This phase shift is measured for holographic gratings in a photoaddressable block copolymer and compared with analytical calculations.