The beam from a laser resonator is determined by the optical elements it contains. Most commonly, these consist of two spherical mirrors, but phase- and amplitude-modulating elements can also be included to produce custom beams. For every custom beam new optics are required, and the resonator must be realigned, a process which can take several hours to days. The digital laser is an innovation which allows the laser beam produced by a laser to be dynamically controlled by a computer. Essentially, one of the resonator mirrors is replaced by a spatial light modulator (SLM), which is a computer controlled, pixellated, liquid-crystal device. While the concept is the device is simple, the implementation revealed subtle properties of spatial light modulators and the liquid crystals contained in them. These properties had to be well understood before their undesirable characteristics could be overcome, allowing the laser to function as conceived in the design.
Reference:
Burger, L, Litvin, I, Ngcobo S and Forbes A. 2014. How to make a digital laser. In: Proceedings of SPIE, Sensors, Mems and Electro-Optical Sytems, Skukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa, South Africa, 17-19 March 2014.
Burger, L., Litvin, I., Ngcobo, S., & Forbes, A. (2014). How to make a digital laser. SPIE. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/8509
Burger, L, I Litvin, Sandile Ngcobo, and A Forbes. "How to make a digital laser." (2014): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/8509
Burger L, Litvin I, Ngcobo S, Forbes A, How to make a digital laser; SPIE; 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/8509 .
Proceedings of SPIE, Sensors, Mems and Electro-Optical Sytems, Skukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa, South Africa, 17-19 March 2014. Due to copyright restrictions, the attached PDF file only contains the abstract of the full text item. For access to the full text item, please consult the publisher's website.
