Generation of Stochastic Structured Light Beams with Controllable Beam Parameters
Xinlei Zhu, Jiayi Yu, Yahong Chen, Fei Wang, Yangjian Cai
Abstract
Introducing randomness into structured light beams will open up new degrees of freedom (DOFs) in the light fields, such as degree of polarization and spatial coherence. However, precise control of the two DOFs in experiment still face a challenge. Here, we present a simple, yet flexible technique for nearly real-time generation of any physical realizable stochastic structured light beam (SSLB) with all controllable beam parameters, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. We experimentally demonstrate the tailoring of beam amplitude, phase, polarization and auto/cross-correlation functions simultaneously through two types of SSLBs. Our approach offers new opportunities to arbitrarily manipulate polarization state of structured light beams inside the Poincaré sphere and has vital applications in free-space optical communications and optical imaging.