Polarization distribution control of parallel femtosecond pulses with spatial light modulators

A parallel femtosecond pulse irradiation method using a computer-generated hologram displayed on a spatial light modulator provides the advantages of high throughput and high energy-use efficiency. Polarization control of the femtosecond pulse enables some unique properties, for example, selective excitation of an anisotropic molecule, focusing at a size beyond the diffraction limit owing to the longitudinal vector component of a radially polarized beam focused by a high-numerical-aperture objective lens, and fabrication of periodic nanostructures with femtosecond laser light. In this study, we propose a parallel femtosecond laser irradiation system with arbitrary polarization distribution control using a pair of spatial light modulators. By using the system, the interval between the diffraction spots was the closest yet reported by avoiding mutual interference among their side lobes. The interval was improved to half compared with our previous work. We also demonstrated the parallel fabrication of periodic nanostructures with orientation control, which, to our knowledge, is the first reported demonstration of its kind. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America