Diffraction analysis of blazed transmission gratings with a modified extended scalar theory

Abstract

An alternative interpretation of the diffraction of blazed transmission gratings with moderate structure period is proposed according to a modified extended scalar theory (MEST). The diffraction field on the bottom facet of the grating is considered to be the interference of four subfields investigated in the problem of diffraction of a plane wave by an infinite half-plane. It is observed that MEST gives the total field that agrees with rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA), and the result is more reliable than that of extended scalar theory (EST). The MEST is still a ray-optical-based approximation approach, and the region of validity is compared with EST and RCWA.