Variable shape or variable diameter flattop beam tailored by using an adaptive weight FFT-based iterative algorithm and a phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator

The variable shape or variable diameter flattop beam shaping technique by using an adaptive weight FFT-based iterative algorithm (AWFFT-IA) and a phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator (PO-LCSLM) is demonstrated. The algorithm is used to design the phase distribution for tailoring central symmetric laser beam into the desired shape or diameter flattop beam, the PO-LCSLM serves as dynamically programmable phase filters, which depend on the designed phase distributions, to retard the incident wavefront as we would expect. The experimental results show that the technique can realize variable shape or variable diameter flattop beam shaping. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.