Resources

Diffractive Optical Elements (DOEs)

Gratings, Beam splitters, Pattern generators for Structured Light

Features

Standard, OEM or custom
Sinusoidal, binary, or other grating profiles
Photoresist on silica, etched silica, or other substrate materials available
High diffraction efficiency
Uniform intensity patterns
Operating wavelengths 250 nm to 1550 nm

StockerYale offers a wide selection of standard and custom diffractive optical elements (DOEs). These DOEs transform a single laser beam into various simple or complex structured light patterns, as illustrated below. In "dot" patterns, each of the several outgoing beams carries the same power. In "line" patterns, the lines are of uniform intensity.

Our DOEs can be fabricated in photoresist (for use with lower power lasers). Alternately, they can be etched in fused silica (for use with high-power or UV applications). Each individual DOE is tested to ensure repeatable and reliable results.

Applications

Beamsplitting
Machine vision systems
Multiple imaging
Spectrometry
Beam sampling
Metrology

Some Available Patterns

Typical Dimensions

Diffraction Equation

The following equation is used to calculate the diffraction angle of the pattern (lines or dots).

q_m is the diffraction angle measured from the center to the m^th beam. The interbeam angle is the angle between two neighboring beams (or orders) starting from the central beam (order 0) with the positive orders on one side (+1, +2, +3...) and the negative orders on the other side (-1, -2, -3...). The spreading angle q_s between the two outmost beams (or lines, when a line generating lens is added) is twice the angle of the higher order beam.

For example, for a 5-line pattern at 670 nm with a period d = 25 µm, the spreading angle q_s is twice the diffraction angle of the second order beam.

5-line pattern generating diffraciton grating

Multiple Dot Patterns

Number of projected lines	DOE Period (µm)	*Interbeam angle (°)	*Spreading angle (°)
5	25	1.54	6.14
	169	0.23	0.91
	170.6	0.23	0.90
9	338.2	0.11	0.91
	532	0.07	0.58
11	25.7	1.49	14.94
15	16.4	2.34	32.78
19	50.4	0.77	13.71
33	100	0.38	12.28
	426.1	0.09	2.88
99	260	0.15	14.47

* At 670 nm

Multiple line patterns are also available with similar specifications. Please call for information on some patterns.

Custom DOEs

Custom and OEM DOEs range from rugged compact and efficient DOEs for field or OEM use to next generation applications for scientific and industrial development.

Available wavelengths 250-1550 nm
Available Interbeam angles from 0.05 to 30 degrees
Photoresist on silica, etched silica or other substrate materials available