Polarization multiplexing of diffractive elements with metal-stripe grating pixels

Diffractive elements with polarization multiplexing for the visible spectral region are demonstrated. The polarization-multiplexing property of the element is based on the polarization-dependent transmission characteristics of metal-stripe sub-wavelength period gratings. The proper dimensions of these gratings are estimated by rigorous calculations. The principle of polarization multiplexing by use of metal-stripe subwavelength period gratings is described for a diffractive element that has a binary amplitude transmission per polarization channel and is demonstrated by experimental results.