Ring beam experiment with a phase-only spatial light modulator

Abstract

The phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) is a real-time electro-optic device capable of modulating the phase of an optical wavefront in space. SLMs have been harnessed for beam shaping. In this paper, an accelerated GS phase retrieval and iteration algorithm is used for designing the SLM phases which transformed a single-mode He-Ne laser into a ring-shaped pattern. These generated ring beams are investigated experimentally and the phenomena of the added prism phases are also observed. The experimental results showed that a given single-mode laser beam could be converted into a ring-shaped intensity distribution which corresponds to our designation.