Reconfigurable generation of high-power structured light via nonlinear beam shaping

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for reconfigurable, high-power structured light generation using nonlinear beam shaping in a fiber laser system, enabling real-time control and scalability beyond 500 W.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nonlinear beam shaping scheme that allows in situ, real-time, and scalable generation of diverse structured light beams at high power levels.

Findings

Generated structured beams exceeding 500 W power.

Achieved real-time programmability of beam profiles.

Developed a nonlinear control framework applicable to high-dimensional systems.

Abstract

High-power structured light has a wide range of applications, from material processing and high-capacity optical communications to programmable electron beams, plasmas, and nuclear states. On-demand generation of structured light and adaptive control of beam profiles are essential for many practical applications, but are difficult to achieve at high power. Here, we demonstrate reconfigurable generation of structured light from a high-power multimode-fiber laser amplifier through full-field control of a low-power seed. An efficient nonlinear beam shaping scheme based on a local linear approximation of the complex nonlinear input--output relation is developed and realized in situ. Diverse structured beams such as Gaussian, Bessel, vector and orbital angular momentum beams are directly generated from the fiber amplifier at powers exceeding 500 W. Our scheme enables real-time programmability of structured light and is readily scalable to even higher power levels. This work provides a general framework for controlling high-dimensional nonlinear systems without accurate knowledge or tractable model.