Two-dimensional gratings of hexagonal holes for high order diffraction suppression

Opt Express. 2017 Jan 23;25(2):1339-1349. doi: 10.1364/OE.25.001339.

Abstract

We propose two-dimensional gratings comprised of a large number of identical and similarly oriented hexagonal holes for the high order diffraction suppression. An analytical study of the diffraction property for such gratings, based on both square and triangle arrays, is described. The dependence of the high order diffraction property on the hole shape and size is investigated. Notably, theoretical calculation reveals that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th order diffractions adjacent to the 1st order diffraction can be completely suppressed, and the 5th order diffraction efficiency is as low as 0.01%, which will be submerged in the background noise for most practical applications. The 1st order diffraction intensity efficiency 6.93% can be achieved as the hexagonal holes along y-axis connect with each other. For the case of b=Py/3, the 1st order diffraction intensity efficiency is 3.08%. The experimental results are also presented, confirming the theoretical predictions. Especially, our two-dimensional gratings have the ability to form free-standing structures which are highly desired for the x-ray region. Comparing with the grating of the square array, the grating of the triangle array is easy to be fabricated by silicon planar process due to the large spacing between any two adjacent holes. Our results should be of great interest in a wide spectrum unscrambling from the infrared to the x-ray region.