Polarization-independent metal-dielectric grating with improved bandwidth

A polarization-independent reflective grating with improved bandwidth is presented based on the mixed metal-dielectric grating. The novel grating is composed of the substrate, the metal slab, two dielectric layers, and the covering layer. The grating parameters are optimized for the special duty cycle of 0.6 at an incident wavelength of 1550 nm used in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). With the designed grating, high efficiency can be diffracted into the reflective –1st order for both TE and TM polarizations, where the polarization-independence is exhibited. Most importantly, the efficiency of more than 90% can be achieved within the incident wavelength bandwidth of 1262–1686 nm, where the bandwidth is improved greatly compared with the reported surface-relief single-layer grating. The reflective grating can have advantages of high efficiency, polarization-independence, and wide bandwidth, which should be useful for DWDM applications.