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Updated: Jul 12, 2026
Shaping the Amplitude and Phase of Laser Beams by Using a Phase-only Spatial Light Modulator
Published on: January 28, 2019
Spatially variable retardation plate for beam brightness enhancement in a high-power laser
G Machavariani1, S Jackel, Y Lumer
1Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Electro-Optics Division, Yavne 81800, Israel. galina@soreg.gov.il
Abstract:
We present a simple and robust method for brightness enhancement, efficiently transforming a radially polarized LG (0,1)(*) mode into a nearly Gaussian beam of much higher quality. We use for this a spatially variable retardation plate and a spatial filter. The analysis shows that the transformation yields an increase in brightness by a factor of 3.4. In the experiment, we transformed a high-power Nd:YAG radially polarized (0,1)(*) LG beam with power of 70 W and M(2)=2.6 into a nearly Gaussian beam with M(2)=1.36. This resulted in brightness enhancement by a factor of 2.6.
