An Iteratively-Designed Binary Phase Grating for Flattop Beam Generation

Abstract

A binary phase grating capable of shaping an incident Gaussian beam to a flattop beam in a Fourier domain is designed iteratively. It is essential in grating design to consider the phases of diffracted waves by the grating, in addition to their amplitude uniformity and diffraction efficiency. The optimized grating phase produces the in-phase diffracted waves that interfere constructively to form a uniform amplitude and phase profile. The dependence of the shaped profile on the illuminating amplitude distribution, the grating misalignment, and the lens focusing error is investigated by computer simulation and optical experiment.