Shaping Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes with binary gratings using a Digital Micromirror Device

Abstract

Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams are used in many research fields, such as microscopy, laser cavity modes and optical tweezing. We develop a holographic method of generating pure LG modes (amplitude and phase) with a binary amplitude-only Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), as an alternative to the commonly used phase-only Spatial Light Modulator. The advantages of such a DMD include very high frame rates, low cost and high damage thresholds. We show that the propagating shaped beams are self-similar and their phase fronts are of helical shape as demanded. We estimate the purity of the resultant beams to be above 94%.

References in corpus (1)

• Transformation of Optical Vortex Beams by Holograms with Embedded Phase Singularity

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