Inverted Gabor holography principle for tailoring arbitrary shaped three-dimensional beams.

Tatiana Latychevskaia,Hans-Werner Fink

doi:10.1038/srep26312

Abstract

It is well known that by modifying the wavefront in a certain manner, the light intensity can be turned into a certain shape. However, all known light modulation techniques allow for limited light modifications only: focusing within a restricted region in space, shaping into a certain class of parametric curves along the optical axis or bending described by a quadratic-dependent deflection as in the case of Airy beams. We show a general case of classical light wavefront shaping that allows for intensity and phase redistribution into an arbitrary profile including pre-determined switching-off of the intensity. To create an arbitrary three-dimensional path of intensity, we represent the path as a sequence of closely packed individual point-like absorbers and simulate the in-line hologram of the created object set; when such a hologram is contrast inverted, thus giving rise to a diffractor, it creates the pre-determined three-dimensional path of intensity behind the diffractor under illumination. The crucial parameter for a smooth optical path is the sampling of the predetermined curves, which is given by the lateral and axial resolution of the optical system. We provide both, simulated and experimental results to demonstrate the power of this novel method.

Highlights

It is well known that by modifying the wavefront in a certain manner, the light intensity can be turned into a certain shape
Examples are optical lenses or Fresnel Zone Plates for focusing an incident wave to a point at the focal plane. Another example are Airy beams[1] created by modifying the phase distribution of the wavefront into an Airy function resulting in a bending of the light intensity while propagating
A further example is holography, where the phase of the wavefront passing through a hologram is changed to mimic the object wavefront, providing the illusion that the original object is present in space[2]

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that by modifying the wavefront in a certain manner, the light intensity can be turned into a certain shape. Examples are optical lenses or Fresnel Zone Plates for focusing an incident wave to a point at the focal plane Another example are Airy beams[1] created by modifying the phase distribution of the wavefront into an Airy function resulting in a bending of the light intensity while propagating. A further example is holography, where the phase of the wavefront passing through a hologram is changed to mimic the object wavefront, providing the illusion that the original object is present in space[2] All these known techniques allow for limited light modifications: focusing within a limited region in space[2], shaping into a certain class of parametric curves[3,4,5,6,7,8] along the optical axis or bending described by a quadratic-dependent deflection as in the case of Airy beams[1].

Methods

Results

Conclusion