Structured light engineering using a photonic nanojet

In this Letter, we present the photonic nanojet as a phenomenon in a structured light generator system that is implemented to modify the source focal spot size and emission angle. The optical system comprises a microlens array that is illuminated by a focused Gaussian beam to generate a structured pattern in the far field. By introducing a spheroid with different aspect ratios in the focus of the Gaussian beam, the source optical characteristics change, and a photonic nanojet is generated, which will engineer the far-field distribution. To probe the light fields, we implement a high-resolution interferometry setup to extract both the phase and intensity at different planes. We both numerically and experimentally demonstrate that the pattern distribution in the far field can be engineered by a photonic nanojet. As an example, we examine prolate, sphere, and oblate geometries. An interesting finding is that depending on the spheroid geometry, a smaller transverse FWHM of a photonic nanojet with a higher divergence angle produces an increased pattern field of view at the same physical size of the optical system.