GPC light shaping a supercontinuum source

Abstract

Generalized Phase Contrast (GPC) is a versatile tool for efficiently rerouting and managing photon energy into speckle-free contiguous spatial light distributions. We have previously shown theoretically and numerically that a GPC Light Shaper shows robustness to shift in wavelength and can maintain both projection length scale and high efficiency over a range [0.75λ(0); 1.5λ(0)] with λ(0) as the characteristic design wavelength. With this performance across multiple wavelengths and the recent availability of tabletop supercontinuum lasers, GPC light shaping opens the possibility for creatively incorporating various multi-wavelength approaches into spatially shaped excitations that can enable new broadband light applications. We verify this new approach using a supercontinuum light source, interfaced with a compact GPC light shaper. Our experiments give ~70% efficiency, ~3x intensity gain, and ~85% energy savings, limited, however, by the illumination equipment, but still in very good agreement with theoretical and numerical predictions.