Fabrication of spiral phase plates for optical vortices

Abstract

This work presents a reproductible fabrication process of spiral phase plates (SPPs) based on microfabrication techniques such as photolithography and reactive ion etching (RIE). The fabricated SPPs operate in the reflection mode in order to generate optical vortices with topological charge m = 2 and m = 4. Structural and functional characterizations prove the optical quality of the fabricated SPP.