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A digital laser for on-demand laser modes

Author

Listed:
  • Sandile Ngcobo

    (School of Physics, University of KwaZulu–Natal
    Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, National Laser Centre)

  • Igor Litvin

    (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, National Laser Centre)

  • Liesl Burger

    (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, National Laser Centre)

  • Andrew Forbes

    (School of Physics, University of KwaZulu–Natal
    Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, National Laser Centre)

Abstract

Customizing the output beam shape from a laser invariably involves specialized optical elements in the form of apertures, diffractive optics and free-form mirrors. Such optics require considerable design and fabrication effort and suffer from the further disadvantage of being immutably connected to the selection of a particular spatial mode. Here we overcome these limitations with the first digital laser comprising an electrically addressed reflective phase-only spatial light modulator as an intra-cavity digitally addressed holographic mirror. The phase and amplitude of the holographic mirror may be controlled simply by writing a computer-generated hologram in the form of a grey-scale image to the device, for on-demand laser modes. We show that we can digitally control the laser modes with ease, and demonstrate real-time switching between spatial modes in an otherwise standard solid-state laser resonator. Our work opens new possibilities for the customizing of laser modes at source.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandile Ngcobo & Igor Litvin & Liesl Burger & Andrew Forbes, 2013. "A digital laser for on-demand laser modes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-6, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3289
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3289
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    Cited by:

    1. Konrad Tschernig & David Guacaneme & Oussama Mhibik & Ivan Divliansky & Miguel A. Bandres, 2024. "Observation of Boyer-Wolf Gaussian modes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Zijian Shi & Zhensong Wan & Ziyu Zhan & Kaige Liu & Qiang Liu & Xing Fu, 2023. "Super-resolution orbital angular momentum holography," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.

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