Analysis of the topography of a Bragg grating in chalcogenide glass

Relief Bragg gratings were recorded on the surface of Ga–Ge–S glass samples by interference of two UV laser beams at 351 nm. Scanning force microscopy was used to perform a 3D image analysis of the resulting surface topography, which shows the superposition of an imprinted grating over the base topography of the glass. An important question regarding the efficiency of the grating is to determine to what extent the base topography reduces the intended coherent scattering of the grating because of its stochastic character. To answer this question we separated both base and grating structures by Fourier filtering, examined both spatial frequency and roughness, and determined the correlation.