White light wavefront control with a spatial light modulator

Abstract

Spatial light modulators are ubiquitous tools for wavefront control and laser beam shaping but have traditionally been used with monochromatic sources due to the inherent wavelength dependence of the calibration process and subsequent phase manipulation. In this work we show that such devices can also be used to shape broadband sources without any wavelength dependence on the output beam’s phase. We outline the principle mathematically and then demonstrate it experimentally using a supercontinuum source to shape rotating white-light Bessel beams carrying orbital angular momentum.