Boundary Effects in Diffraction of Light from Volume Gratings: 1. Phase Reflection Gratings

摘要

Diffraction of light from a bounded volume reflection phase grating is analyzed theoretically on the basis of the two-wave approximation of the method of characteristic modes. The analysis is carried out for the case of the arbitrary relation between the refractive indices of surrounding media and the mean refractive index of the grating. It is shown that boundary effects can significantly affect the form of the angular dependence of the diffraction efficiency as well as the magnitude and the distribution of the field inside the grating. The presence of a strong cavity effect in the case of total internal reflection of waves at the rear boundary of the grating is confirmed, and attention is called to the possibility of realization of surface waves with combined refraction-reflection mechanism of spatial confinement.