Generation of colorful Airy beams and Airy imaging of letters via two-photon processed cubic phase plates

In this Letter, we demonstrate the observation of colorful Airy beams and Airy imaging of letters, which we called Airy letters here, generated through the continuous cubic phase microplate (CCPP) elaborately fabricated by femtosecond laser two-photon processing. The fabricated CCPP with both micro size (60 mu m x 60 mu m x 1.1 mu m) and continuous variation of phase shows a good agreement with the designed CCPP. Chromatic Airy beams and Airy letters USTC are experimentally generated via the CCPP illuminated by white light. In addition, superior properties of Airy letters are explored, demonstrating that the Airy letters inherit the nondiffraction, self-healing, and transverse acceleration characteristics of Airy beams. Our work paves the way toward integrated optics, light separation, optical imaging, and defective information recovery. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America