ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we review the use of spatial light modulators SLMs to display reconfigurable digital holograms capable of modifying and shaping laser beams. In order to achieve this goal, we concentrate on liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) as SLM devices. We will review the physical properties of these devices, and how to achieve specific optical modulation configurations. Our major goal is to achieve phase-only modulation and we examine their diffraction efficiency implications. We then introduce an encoding technique that allows amplitude information to be encoded onto phase-only filters.
This technique permits the design of reconfigurable digital holograms, useful for beamshaping applications, in particular for the generation of laser modes. The same technique can be applied to two orthogonal polarization components to additionally allow a full control of the state of polarization. This approach should then be useful for the generation of polarized laser beams.
