Investigation of geometrical effects of antireflective subwavelength grating structures for optical device applications

We calculated diffraction efficiencies of subwavelength grating (SWG) structures for various optical device applications by using a rigorous coupled-wave analysis method. The geometrical effects, such as grating shape, height, and period, were investigated in order to obtain better antireflection performance. Cone shaped SWG structures with a taller height provide lower reflectance over a broadband wavelength range compared to that of flat surface and nanorod. It was found that the low reflection regions are quite related with the grating period and the refractive index of substrate materials. From the comparison between external and internal reflection of SWG structures, we also showed that the internal reflection requires shorter grating period than the case of external reflection to acquire broadband antireflection properties.