Novel approaches to direct search algorithms for the design of diffractive optical elements

The implementation of direct search schemes for the design of multi-level diffractive optical elements is investigated. In particular, simulated annealing with an estimated temperature is shown to yield improvements in iteration time over simple simulated annealing. A cost function for the formation of greylevel diffraction patterns is suggested. An efficient method of finding an appropriate initial temperature for simulated annealing is presented.