Reflection diffraction grating having a controllable blaze angle

A diffraction grating having a controllable blaze angle comprising:

• a material deformable under an applied electric field;
• a first electrode coupled to a first surface of said deformable material;
• a second electrode comprised of an optically reflecting material coupled to a second surface of said deformable material;
• said first and said second electrode providing a periodic electric field having a repeating sawtooth profile in said deformable material upon application of a potential difference between said first and said second electrode, said periodic electric field providing periodic surface distortions of said second electrode, said surface distortions being related to a magnitude of said applied potential.

A reflection diffraction grating having a variable blaze angle, including

• an elastomeric material deformable under the influence of an electric field and disposed in a plane of X-Y orthogonal axes,
• a first electrode disposed on a first surface of said elastomeric material,
• a second electrode disposed on a second opposite surface of said elastomeric material, said second electrode including an optically reflective outer surface,
• said first electrode and said second electrode thus being disposed in face-to-face relationship across said elastomeric material,
• said first electrode being disposed to address said second electrode by a difference of potential relative to said second electrode which is uniform along x dimensions of said elastomeric material and which varies linearly in a repeating pattern along y dimensions of said elastomeric material to result in a generally saw-tooth voltage profile along said y dimension and a corresponding saw-tooth configuration of said reflective outer surface of said second electrode, and
• means to vary the voltage impressed on said first and second electrodes to vary the linear relationship of the difference of potential between said first and second electrodes to correspondingly vary the blaze angle of said grating.