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Main Authors: Bütow, Johannes, Eismann, Jörg S., Sharma, Varun, Brandmüller, Dorian, Banzer, Peter
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.08963
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author Bütow, Johannes
Eismann, Jörg S.
Sharma, Varun
Brandmüller, Dorian
Banzer, Peter
author_facet Bütow, Johannes
Eismann, Jörg S.
Sharma, Varun
Brandmüller, Dorian
Banzer, Peter
contents Structured light is a key component of many modern applications, ranging from superresolution microscopy to imaging, sensing, and quantum information processing. As the utilization of these powerful tools continues to spread, the demand for technologies that enable the spatial manipulation of fundamental properties of light, such as amplitude, phase, and polarization grows further. In this respect, technologies based on liquid-crystal cells, e.g., spatial light modulators, became very popular in the last decade. However, the rapidly advancing field of integrated photonics allows entirely new routes towards beam shaping that not only outperform liquid-crystal devices in terms of speed, but also have substantial potential with respect to robustness and conversion efficiencies. In this study, we demonstrate how a programmable integrated photonic processor can generate and control higher-order free-space structured light beams at the click of a button. Our system offers lossless and reconfigurable control of the spatial distribution of light's amplitude and phase, with switching times in the microsecond domain. The showcased on-chip generation of spatially tailored light enables an even more diverse set of methods, applications, and devices that utilize structured light by providing a pathway towards combining the strengths of programmable integrated photonics and free-space structured light.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_08963
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Generating free-space structured light with programmable integrated photonics
Bütow, Johannes
Eismann, Jörg S.
Sharma, Varun
Brandmüller, Dorian
Banzer, Peter
Optics
Structured light is a key component of many modern applications, ranging from superresolution microscopy to imaging, sensing, and quantum information processing. As the utilization of these powerful tools continues to spread, the demand for technologies that enable the spatial manipulation of fundamental properties of light, such as amplitude, phase, and polarization grows further. In this respect, technologies based on liquid-crystal cells, e.g., spatial light modulators, became very popular in the last decade. However, the rapidly advancing field of integrated photonics allows entirely new routes towards beam shaping that not only outperform liquid-crystal devices in terms of speed, but also have substantial potential with respect to robustness and conversion efficiencies. In this study, we demonstrate how a programmable integrated photonic processor can generate and control higher-order free-space structured light beams at the click of a button. Our system offers lossless and reconfigurable control of the spatial distribution of light's amplitude and phase, with switching times in the microsecond domain. The showcased on-chip generation of spatially tailored light enables an even more diverse set of methods, applications, and devices that utilize structured light by providing a pathway towards combining the strengths of programmable integrated photonics and free-space structured light.
title Generating free-space structured light with programmable integrated photonics
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.08963