Using ion-beam processing to fabricate polarizer gratings

This paper discusses the possibilities of ion-beam processing for fabricating polarizers for the IR region on the basis of ruled diffraction gratings on solid substrates made from brittle materials: germanium, silicon, and PO-4 optical ceramic (zinc selenide). The conditions and regimes for carrying out the operations and the characteristics of experimental samples of polarizer gratings are presented. It is shown that it is promising to use these operations to obtain diffraction gratings for squeezing laser pulses and to create polarizers based on holographic diffraction gratings. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.