Abstract
Intracavity laser beam shaping has been achieved by adding intensity or phase filters to a Fabry-Perot resonator. Changing the output beam from one mode to another is a tedious process, requiring the replacing of custom optical elements, and careful realignment. The digital laser [1] is an innovation which allows the laser beam produced by a laser to be dynamically controlled by a computer. Essentially, one of the resonator mirrors is replaced by a spatial light modulator (SLM), which is a computer controlled, pixellated, liquid-crystal device. While the concept is the device is simple, the implementation revealed subtle properties of spatial light modulators and the liquid crystals contained in them. These properties had to be well understood before their undesirable characteristics could be overcome, allowing the laser to function as conceived in the design.
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