Wave-plate polarizing beam splitter based on a form-birefringent multilayer grating

We have fabricated a novel device that acts as a quarter-wave plate at normal incidence and as a polarizing beam splitter at an angle of incidence of similar to 40 deg. The device is made from a multilayer (SiO2/Si3N4) surface-relief zeroth-order one-dimensional grating with a period of 0.3 mu m. The device is designed for an operating wavelength of 632.8 nm. We designed the device by using rigorous coupled-wave analysis and fabricated it by direct-write electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. Measurements confirmed the performance of the device as a wave plate and as a polarizing beam splitter. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.