Gaussian laser beam structuring using acousto-optic effect: a parametric characterization

The structuring of a Gaussian beam into peculiar beams becomes a corner stone in many laser applications, such as micromachining, telecommunication, particle manipulation, and quantum computing. A variety of techniques based on diffractive optics were used for structuring laser beams, using spatial light modulators (SLMs), digital micro mirrors (DMDs), and acousto-optics cells (AOCs). In our recently published papers (JOSA B 37(11):A45-A53, 2020) and (Opt. Commun., j.optcom.2021.127501, 2021), we have demonstrated theoretically the shaping of an input Gaussian laser beam into a variety of interesting accelerated beams such as Airy beams, dual- and quad-Airy beams. We have shown that by choosing the right parameters of the acousto-optics cell and Gaussian beam interaction, we can obtain the desired shape. In this paper, we keep up constructing this toolkit of shaping Gaussian beams by an acousto-optics cell into interesting and practical useful laser beams. However, here, we focus on the Flat-top shape, treating the problem differently. We calculate analytically the Kurtosis parameter K, which is a statistical parameter usually used as a Flatness indicator for laser beams, of the obtained beams, then we introduce a standard curve for the Kurtosis parameter K by simulating the super-Gaussian distribution that is supposed as the best theoretical model of the Flat distributions. In the results, we obtain particular and interesting laser beam shapes including a quasi-perfect Flat-top beam corresponding to a kurtosis parameter K = 1.8 and some petal shapes for K < 1.8 that are, to our best knowledge, introduced for the first time in this paper. We believe that the parametric characterization, of the Gaussian beam acousto-optics interaction, we demonstrated, in this paper, will give new insight in controlling the laser beam shaping.