Generation of Bessel Beams at mm- and Sub mm-wavelengths by Binary Optical Elements

In this paper, binary optical elements (BOE’s) are designed for generating Bessel beams at mm- and sub mm- wavelengths. The design tool is to combine a genetic algorithm (GA) for global optimization with a two-dimension finite-difference time-domain (2-D FDTD) method for rigorous electromagnetic computation. The design process for converting a normally incident Gaussian beam into a Bessel beam is described in detail. Numerical results demonstrate that the designed BOE’s can not only successfully produce arbitrary order Bessel beams, but also have higher diffraction efficiencies when compared with amplitude holograms.