Coherent ray-wave structured light based on (helical) Ince-Gaussian modes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to generate and control coherent ray-wave structured light modes, unifying traveling-wave and standing-wave representations, with potential applications in optical manipulation and communication.

Contribution

It presents the first unification of TW and SW ray-wave structured light modes using Ince-Gaussian modes and demonstrates high-purity experimental generation with dynamic control.

Findings

Successfully generated high-purity coherent modes

Demonstrated dynamic control via digital holography

Revealed applications in optical manipulation and communication

Abstract

The topological evolution of classic eigenmodes including Hermite-Laguerre-Gaussian and (helical) InceGaussian modes is exploited to construct coherent state modes, which unifies the representations of travelingwave (TW) and standing-wave (SW) ray-wave structured light for the first time and realizes the TW-SW unified ray-wave geometric beam with topology of raytrajectories splitting effect, breaking the boundary of TW and SW structured light. We experimentally generate these new modes with high purity and dynamic control by digital holography method, revealing potential applications in optical manipulation and communication.