Abstract. The combined effect of phase quantization, diffractive element feature size and signal location in the reconstruction plane, on diffraction efficiency upper bounds is presented. An upper-bound criterion linking these different features is given. The interest of such a criterion, regarding the optimization of diffraction efficiency in unconventional cases involving considerations of technical feasibility and system parameters, is discussed. Particular attention is paid to multilevel programmable phase elements involving particular constraints on feature size and phase quantization.

Print publication: Issue 4 (July 1996)
Received 18 September 1995, in final form 19 January 1996