Security element with diffraction structures

A security element comprising a plastic laminate with a surface pattern composed of mosaic-like surface elements, wherein the plastic laminate has a shaping layer arranged between a cover layer and a protective layer and an interface between the shaping layer and the protective layer, the interface reflecting light incident through the cover layer and the shaping layer, and wherein optically effective structures of the surface elements are shaped into the shaping layer at the interface, wherein

• arranged in the surface pattern is at least one pair of surfaces formed from a first surface element and a second surface element,
• the two surface elements each have a diffraction structure produced from a superimposition of a grating structure with a relief structure,
• in the first surface element a grating vector of the grating structure and a relief vector of the relief structure are substantially parallel and in the second surface element the grating vector of the same grating structure and the relief vector of the same relief structure include a substantially right angle,
• the grating vectors of the grating structures in the two surface elements are substantially parallel,
• a relief spatial frequency of the two relief structures is greater than 2,500 lines/millimeter, and
• the relief spatial frequency is at least ten times higher than a grating spatial frequency of the two grating structures.