Development of a mirror backed volume phase grating with potential for large aperture and high damage threshold

The present paper proposes a new grating concept by which a volume phase grating is placed on top of a dielectric mirror stack. Instead of using a multilayer dielectric grating, wherein the uppermost layer of a thin film mirror is etched to create the desired binary phase grating we suggest to have an upper grating layer of a lower density gelatin-based volume phase grating in either sol–gel or dichromated gelatin. The key benefit is the elimination of the etching step which is the limiting factor in the production of large aperture gratings. We have investigated designs for s- and p-polarization as well as the necessary chemistry that is needed to achieve the required index modulations. Damage testing on dichromated gelatin and aerogel was performed and diffraction efficiencies for various prototypes were measured.