Ion-beam lithography for fabrication of diffractive optical phase elements in silver-ion-exchanged glasses

In the present article, ion-beam lithography in ion-exchanged glasses is used as a method for the fabrication of miniaturized phase optical diffractive elements. It is established that, as a result of the interaction of a low-energy (∼ 40 keV) He+ ion beam with silver-ion-exchanged glasses, the index of refraction of interacted area increases. In the interacted areas of the samples, the formation of neutral silver nanoparticles leads to an increase in the index of refraction. This paves the way to employ such material to produce optical phase diffractive elements such as slits, gratings, or Fresnel’s zone plates. It is found that a remarkable dispersion for the index of refraction (n = n(λ)) gives rise to the dependence of diffraction efficiency of produced elements to the wavelength of the probe beams. The produced elements are of good quality, optically effective, chemically stable, waterproof, and scratch resistant.