Patent ID: 8248696

Claim:
A diffusive wire grid polarizer device, comprising: a) a substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface; b) at least one layer disposed over the top surface of the substrate; c) a wire grid formed in one of the at least one layer including an array of elongated parallel conductive wires with P WGP <λ/2, where P WGP is the period of the wires, and λ is the wavelength of light incident on the wires, to polarize the light by substantially reflecting light having an s-polarization orientation and substantially transmitting light having a p-polarization orientation incident on the array; d) at least sixteen facets of at least two different sizes formed in one of the at least one layer with a facet dimension transverse to the wires greater than λ/2 to substantially diffract both s-polarized light and p-polarized light incident on the at least two facets; and e) the at least sixteen facets forming distinct groups arranged in a fractal pattern.