Shaping light with split lens configurations

Abstract

We present an intuitive and versatile method that can dynamically generate 2D and 3D tailored light patterns. The light structures are generated by dynamically implementing discrete and continuous split lens configurations onto a spatial light modulator. These configurations can be dynamically modified by tuning a reduced number of control parameters with simple physical interpretation. We demonstrate the versatility of the method by experimentally implementing a wide number of structured beams, including optical lattices, a light cone, and vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum. Compared with other optical illuminators, the advantages of our method are its simple interpretation and control for creating the light structures, and that it is based on a robust, dynamic and easy-to-build optical set-up. The proposed method may be useful in a large number of applications, such as optical trapping, super-resolution imaging or illuminating arrays of photonic switching devices.

Dynamic microparticle manipulation through light structures generated by a self-calibrated Liquid Crystal on Silicon display

“…Moreover, this generated light bottle structure should be able to be spatially controlled to realize the microparticle dragging. To perform this manipulation (i.e., the optical trapping and the particle dragging), a Liquid Crsystal on Silicon (LCoS) display is introduced by being addressed different digital diffractive optical elements (DOEs) [17] to obtain the controllable bottle-shape light structure.…”

Self-addressed diffractive lens schemes for the characterization of LCoS displays

“…LCDs are also extensively used as spatial light modulators (SLMs) to generate different diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for dynamic processes [8,9]. In this framework, they provide the feasibility to obtain structured illumination [10,11], or they stand as pattern generators to achieve real-time laser beam shaping [12,13]. Last but not least, LCDs are also used to implement optical tweezers [14,15], optical encryption [16] or digital lenses with improved performance [17,18].…”

“…We present in this paper an alternative self-calibration method based on addressing diffractive lens configurations, valid to both characterize the overall phase-gray level performance and the LCoS screen profile. In particular, a split-lens configuration [11] and an arrangement of dynamic lenses (Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor configuration) are proposed, respectively. The overall phase distribution as a function of the addressed voltage is retrieved by the implementation of a split-lens configuration, which creates a fringes-like interferences system from which the phasevoltage curve can be determined.…”

“…We want to emphasize that the two above-mentioned lens schemes are employed in the same spatial light modulator and both selfmeasurements can be performed without the modification of the experimental set-up. The proposed calibration method provides three main advantages compared to other existing techniques [11,15,20,29]. First, the split-lens configuration provides the phase-voltage look-up table even in presence of time-fluctuations of the phase phenomenon, as we are dealing with an interferometric system, and the required average phase is determined as a function of the applied voltage.…”

“…First, the split-lens configuration provides the phase-voltage look-up table even in presence of time-fluctuations of the phase phenomenon, as we are dealing with an interferometric system, and the required average phase is determined as a function of the applied voltage. Second, both the phase-voltage performance and the phase profile of the display can be acquired within the same optical arrangement by generating two diffractive lens configurations (split lens schemes [11] or Shack-Hartmann configurations [34,38,39]) on the same LCoS display. Third, the LCoS features can be self-retrieved without the implementation of any external calibrating set-ups (as it is the common case), which leads to a more compact system.…”