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Periodically patterned columnar thin films as Blazed gratings

Periodically patterned columnar thin films (PP-CTFs) were made by evaporating CaF2 and directing the vapor flux obliquely towards lithographically fabricated micrometer/sub-micrometer gratings. The growth of the PP-CTFs was controlled by the deposition rate to form prismatic air cavities within them and they function like blazed diffraction gratings with asymmetric diffraction patterns and diffraction efficiencies upto 52% in transmission at visible wavelengths. Scalar diffraction theory qualitatively explained the measured diffraction efficiencies.