Abstract
Spatial light modulators are ubiquitous tools for wavefront control and laser beam shaping but have traditionally been used with monochromatic sources due to the inherent wavelength dependence of the calibration process and subsequent phase manipulation. In this work we show that such devices can also be used to shape broadband sources without any wavelength dependence on the output beam's phase. We outline the principle mathematically and then demonstrate it experimentally using a supercontinuum source to shape rotating white-light Bessel beams carrying orbital angular momentum.
Highlights
Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are standard tools for the shaping and control of light, having found applications in fields ranging from holographic optical trapping and tweezing [1,2,3,4], laser beam shaping and characterization [5,6,7,8,9] and imaging [10] to name but a few
We show mathematically that when operated in the first diffraction order with a blazed grating present, the SLM correctly shapes any wavelength of light, albeit at the expense of a reduced efficiency
For the first time, that when a blazed grating combined with some desired phase mask is affected by Constant incorrect phase scaling (CIPS), one can use the spatial separation of orders caused by the blazed grating to compensate for the mismatch in phase, albeit at the expense of amplitude loss
Summary
Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are standard tools for the shaping and control of light, having found applications in fields ranging from holographic optical trapping and tweezing [1,2,3,4], laser beam shaping and characterization [5,6,7,8,9] and imaging [10] to name but a few. These devices are primarily limited in two ways. We offer a cautionary tale in how SLMs are calibrated as well as their use for temporal shaping of the spectral components of ultrafast lasers
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