Determination of off-axis diffraction efficiency for fresnel microlenses using rigorous coupled wave analysis

Miniature diffractive lenses are an integral part of many modern optical systems; from optical disc pick-up heads to optical interconnects. Large feature size diffractive lenses are easily modeled using simple scalar diffraction theory. However, as the feature size of diffractive lenses becomes smaller the theoretical modeling of the systems becomes more complex; a rigorous diffractive theory becomes necessary. This thesis will determine the difference in analyzing a diffractive minilens with either a scalar or rigorous diffraction theory for a free-space optical interconnect with fast Fresnel lenses. The analysis is done for minilenses with f/# of 2.9 to 8. The results of the analysis show that there is a great amount of non-uniformity in the diffraction efficiency. In particular, for fast lenses, the diffraction efficiency dropped significantly from the center of the lens to the outer edge of the lens. There was no significant polarization sensitivity in the lenses. An experiment was conducted that supported the theoretical results