Fabrication of diamond diffractive optics for powerful CO2 lasers via replication of laser microstructures on silicon template

New approach to fabricate diamond diffractive optical elements (DOEs) with continuous relief for powerful CO2 lasers is proposed and tested. It involves short-pulse laser microstructuring of a silicon wafer, which further is used as a substrate for polycrystalline diamond growth in a microwave plasma-assisted CVD process. After fine mechanical polishing of the growth side of the diamond film, the silicon substrate is removed via chemical etching. Two different DOEs providing close to 100% diffraction efficiency were fabricated with this technique: cylindrical Fresnel lens with kinoform surface profile and three-beam splitter with continuous microrelief. Optimization of the laser processing conditions has made possible to reduce the final roughness of the structured diamond surface to 200–400 nm depending on the local relief depth (0–7 μm). Both DOEs tested with a CO2 laser have demonstrated high transparency and diffraction efficiency, as well as low radiation scattering of the IR radiation at the surface irregularities.