Nanowire Grid Reflecting Polarizers for Ultraviolet Applications

Polarimetry in the far ultraviolet (FUV) is a powerful tool in many applications such as UV/EUV ellipsometry, characterization and control of the beam polarization status in large scale facilities and solar physics. FUV polarizers are among the most difficult components to manufacture, mainly due to the lack of dichroic and transparent materials in this spectral range. Although many different solutions for their fabrication have been investigated in the last decades, surprisingly, the use of Wire Grid Polarizers (WGPs) is still poorly investigated in this spectral region. In this work, two different concepts of WGPs have been designed and optimized for the FUV range: one is based on absorptive nano-wires on top of an highly reflective substrate, and the second one is based on highly reflective nano-wires on top of an absorptive substrate. Different wires’ shapes have been considered and relative structures optimized at a target wavelength of 121.6 nm. Two very promising solutions have been selected, which exhibit a polarization degree over 99.9% and a TE-reflectance over 0.2. Their sensitivity to the wires’ dimension parameters have been investigated to assess their feasibility.