Wavelength-Selective Diffraction from Silica Thin-Film Gratings

A reflective diffraction grating with a periodic square-wave profile will combine the effects of thin-film interference with conventional grating behavior when composed of features having a different refractive index than that of the substrate. A grating period of 700-1300 nm was modeled and compared for both silicon (Si) and silicon dioxide (SiO₂) to determine the behavior of light interaction with the structures. Finite element analysis was used to study nanostructures having a multirefractive index grating and a conventional single material grating. A multimaterial grating has the same diffraction efficiency as that of a grating formed in a single material, but had the advantage of having an ordered relationship between the grating dimensions (thickness and period) and the intensity of reflected and diffracted optical wavelengths. We demonstrate a color-selective feature of the modeled SiO₂ grating by fabricating samples with grating periods of 800 and 1000 nm, respectively. A high diffraction efficiency was measured for the green wavelength region as compared to other colors in the spectrum for 800 nm grating periodicity; whereas wavelengths within the red region of spectrum interfered constructively for the grating with 1000 nm periodicity resulting a higher efficiency for red color bandwidth. The results show that diffraction effects can be enhanced by the thin-film interference phenomenon to produce color selective optical devices.