Subwavelength structured surfaces and their applications

The term subwavelength structured (SWS) surface describes any surface that contains a subwavelength-period grating or gratings. The grating may be of any type provided the period is sufficiently fine so that, unlike conventional gratings, no diffraction orders propagate other than the zeroth orders. Because of the fine periods involved, the fabrication of such surfaces for applications in the visible and infrared portions of the spectral regime have only recently been considered. With refinements in holographic procedures and the push of the semiconductor industry for submicron lithography, production of SWS surfaces is becoming increasingly viable. The topics covered include the following: analytic approaches to analyze SWS surfaces, 1D periodic stratification and effective medium theory, design of waveplates using form birefringence, and 2D binary antireflection structured surfaces.