Investigation of the properties of an ion-etched plane laminar holographic grating

We have measured the efficiency over the range 125-225 Angstrom of a bare ion-etched plane laminar holographic grating made of fused silica, and with 1000 grooves/mm. The measured efficiency of each order oscillates with wavelength because of constructive and destructive interference between radiation diffracted from the lands and the grooves. We measured the grating groove profile with an atomic force microscope, and the resulting groove depth of 434 +/- 6 Angstrom agrees well with the values determined independently from the oscillatory behavior of the efficiency, measurements. Grating efficiency in the +1 order peaked at values of 0.027%, 0.011%, and 0.005% at wavelengths of 191,157, and 132 Angstrom, respectively; and the derived groove efficiencies are 27%, 25%, and 27%. The irregular shape at the land-groove edges dominates the large grating roughness of 23-45-Angstrom rms, but even regions far from the edges have a roughness of 10-18-Angstrom rms. The average groove profile was used to model the grating efficiency, and the resulting wavelengths predicted for different order maxima and minima agree well with measured wavelengths, although the calculated efficiencies are greater than the measured results by 10-20%.