Open AccessDigitally tailoring arbitrary structured light of generalized ray-wave duality
Author(s) -
Zhensong Wan,
Zhaoyang Wang,
Xilin Yang,
Yijie Shen,
Xing Fu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.400587
Subject(s) - duality (order theory) , structured light , wave packet , geometrical optics , holography , optics , physics , ray , geometric modeling , degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) , computer science , geometry , quantum mechanics , mathematics , pure mathematics
Structured lights, particularly those with tunable and controllable geometries, are highly topical due to a myriad of their applications from imaging to communications. Ray-wave duality (RWD) is an exotic physical effect in structured light that the behavior of light can be described by both the geometric ray-like trajectory and a coherent wave-packet, thus providing versatile degrees of freedom (DoFs) to tailor more general structures. However, the generation of RWD geometric modes requires a solid-state laser cavity with strict mechanical control to fulfill the ray oscillation condition, which limits the flexiblility of applications. Here we overcome this confinement to generate on-demand RWD geometric modes by digital holographic method in free space without a cavity. We put forward a theory of generalized ray-wave duality, describing all previous geometric modes as well as new classes of RWD geometric modes that cannot be generated from laser cavities, which are verified by our free-of-cavity creation method. Our work not only breaks the conventional cavity limit on RWD but also enriches the family of geometric modes. More importantly, it offers a new way of digitally tailoring RWD geometric modes on-demand, replacing the prior mechanical control, and opening up new possibilities for applications of ray-wave structured light.