Reducing the diffraction artifacts while implementing a phase function on a spatial light modulator

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Information Technology

Background:

• Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are crucial for phase modulation.
• Pixelated nature of SLMs leads to approximated phase functions.
• Regular sampling in SLMs causes undesirable diffraction peaks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To theoretically investigate novel pixelation techniques for SLMs.
• To eliminate diffraction artifacts in phase modulation.
• To explore alternative methods for implementing optical functions.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical investigation of two pixelation techniques.
• Isophase method.
• A novel nonperiodic method based on Voronoi tessellation.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated elimination of diffraction peaks with suitable parameter choices.
• Replaced diffraction peaks with a smoothly varying halo.
• Showcased the potential for lens function implementation and wavefront correction.

Conclusions:

• The isophase and Voronoi-derived nonperiodic methods effectively mitigate SLM pixelation artifacts.
• These techniques offer a pathway to high-fidelity phase modulation.
• Potential applications include advanced optical component design and adaptive optics.