Characteristics of optical multiple channelled filters made of aperiodically patterned phase elements

Abstract

Alternative optical filtered phase elements (OFPEs) in a rotationally symmetrically optical system are designed based on the general theory of the phase-retrieval. The OFPEs can implement simultaneously the filtering and focusing functions of optical waves at the preassigned wavelengths. The design procedure corresponds to solving an inverse source problem in optics. The designed OFPEs have aperiodic surface-relief depth distributions. Numerical results demonstrate that the constructed OFPEs can achieve the predetermined goal well. The performances of the designed OFPEs are appraised in detail, for instance, the line-width of the transmissive peaks, the spot size of the focusing point on the focal plane, and the effect of phase quantized level of the OFPEs, etc. It is expected that the presented OFPEs may diversify the optical filtering devices to meet various applications in micro-optics.