A Brief Overview of the PCGrate-S(X) Series  

 

PCGrate^®-S(X) v. 6.2 calculates the diffraction efficiency and near-zone diffraction field for such kinds of 1-D reflection and transmission relief & phase gratings (holographic, ruled, and others) and 1-D & 2-D photonic crystals as those with arbitrary shape multilayer (that have different borders or non-uniform vertical thicknesses along the grating period), variable groove depth, concave & convex, in conical mounts, irradiated by non-planar waves, in general polarization states, with various periodical & random layers' roughnesses, and in a super wide spectral region. The rigorous integral equation method⁵ employed in the analysis of diffraction grating efficiency³ is extended here to the case of non-periodical structures of any kind. A tool for random asperities generating is included (see Figure #27) with a possibility to add microroughness on one facet (part) of a border profile (see Figure #15). The updated PCGrate 6.2 Border Profile Editor has new randomization features to generate rough borders of any kinds including those having the Gaussian autocorrelation function. The software has two independent multilayer solvers, which are based on different calculation schemes.  

The PCGrate 6.2 Separating solver is based on the newly developed single-boundary integral-equation Scattering solver and the Scattering-matrix approach to multilayer diffraction.^28,32 By the definition, it requires homogeneous media separated two adjacent corrugated regions by fictitious planes (see Figure #30). The distance between such planes may be arbitrary including very close to zero. The Separating solver is primarily intended for efficiency calculations of dielectric rods of arbitrary shape and refractive index such as 2-D photonic crystals, any uncoated gratings including rough ones, and specific types of coated gratings and mirrors. It is indispensable for the X-ray-VUV gratings and mirrors covered with one or many plane or rather thick conformal coatings and, especially, for grazing incidence.  

The earlier implemented and now improved the PCGrate 6.2 Penetrating solver is based on the multi-boundary marching scheme^2,35 and it doesn't require a separation between two adjacent corrugated regions (see Figure #31).⁴ This is vital in the modeling of many coated gratings (echelles, multilayer X-ray-VUV, thin-oxidized, etc.). So, the Penetrating solver is more general in this sense. In the PCGrate-S(X) v. 6.2 program the default solver type is Penetrating. As a rule, the Penetrating solver takes more time than Separating one to solve such problems due to considering the absolute plane border as a corrugated boundary and solving the integral equations on each physical boundary (it also depends on number of +/- terms/orders taking into account).  

 

PCGrate^®-S(X) v. 6.1 makes it possible to calculate the diffraction efficiency and the near-zone diffraction field for 1-D reflection and transmission relief & phase gratings (holographic, ruled, and others) with arbitrary shape multilayers which have different borders or non-uniform vertical thickness along the grating period, concave or convex gratings, and gratings in conical mounts. It can also be used for calculations in the case of gratings irradiated by non-planar waves, in a general polarization state, gratings with periodic and random layers' roughness, and working in a very wide spectral region. It allows calculation of multilayer resonance cases at a high speed by using the self-acting smart internal cache of the program and by solving in parallel with multi- core/processor systems.  

PCGrate-SX v.6.1 works in a super-wide spectral region from hard X-ray to meter wavelengths. This is a special version that makes it possible to calculate multilayer (up to thousands layers) X-ray cases at a very high speed using significantly improved convergence (special check-boxes included) and with an extended set of parameters. It enables one to easily model the most difficult problems of behavior of bulk and multilayer grating efficiency at very small wavelength-to-period ratios.  

 

The Limits and Constraints of Series and Types of the PCGrate^®-S(X) Software  

 

Both series of PCGrate-S(X) v.6.1 and PCGrate-S(X) v.6.2 series have three types, viz. PCGrate-S(X) GUI, PCGrate-S(X) XML, and PCGrate-S(X) Complete. The type is determined by a HASP® key which is supplied with the program. The types of PCGrate-S(X) v.6.1 and v.6.2 series have several restrictions.  

 

*All programs have a GUI-->XML converter of input data.  

**The one-year free technical support is given with all products of the PCGrate-S(X) v.6.1 Series.  

 

*All programs have a GUI-->XML converter of input data.  

**The one-year warranty (errors fixed at no charge) and one-year free updates & technical support are given with all products of the PCGrate-S(X) v.6.2 Series.  

 

Hardware Requirements of the PCGrate-S(X) v.6.1 Series  

 

The PCGrate-S(X) v. 6.1 software for Microsoft^® Windows^® 32-bit requires:  

 

Hardware Requirements of the PCGrate-S(X) v.6.2 Series  

 

The PCGrate-S(X) v.6.2 software for Microsoft^® Windows^® 32-bit requires: