Accurate optical wavefront reconstruction based on reciprocity of an optical path using low resolution spatial light modulators

A method for high precision optical wavefront reconstruction using low resolution spatial light modulators (SLMs) was proposed. It utilizes an adiabatic waveguide taper consisting of a plurality of single-mode waveguides to decompose an incident light field into simple fundamental modes of the single-mode waveguides. By digital generation of the conjugate fields of those simple fundamental modes a field proportional to the original incident light field might be reconstructed accurately based on reciprocity. Devices based on the method using transparent and reflective SLMs possess no aberration like that of a conventional optic lens and are able to achieve diffraction limited resolution. Specifically on the surface of the narrow end of a taper a resolution much higher than half of the wavelength is attainable. The device may work in linear mode and possesses unlimited theoretical 3D space-bandwidth product (SBP). The SBP of a real device is limited by the accuracy of SLMs. A pair of 8-bit SLMs with 1000 x 1000=10(6) pixels could provide a SBP of about 5 x 10(4). The SBP may expand by 16 times if 10-bit SLMs with the same number of pixels are employed or 16 successive frames are used to display one scene. The device might be used as high precision optical tweezers, or employed for continuous or discrete real-time 3D display, 3D measurement, machine vision, etc. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.