title: Complete modal decomposition for optical fibers using CGH-based correlation filters.
abstract: The description of optical fields in terms of their eigenmodes is an intuitive approach for beam characterization. However, there is a lack of unambiguous, pure experimental methods in contrast to numerical phase-retrieval routines, mainly because of the difficulty to characterize the phase structure properly, e.g. if it contains singularities. This paper presents novel results for the complete modal decomposition of optical fields by using computer-generated holographic filters. The suitability of this method is proven by reconstructing various fields emerging from a weakly multi-mode fiber (V approximately 5) with arbitrary mode contents. Advantages of this approach are its mathematical uniqueness and its experimental simplicity. The method constitutes a promising technique for real-time beam characterization, even for singular beam profiles.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, D-07743 Jena. Thomas.Kaiser.1@uni-jena.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Flamm
authors.forename: Siegmund
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schröter
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duparré
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006696:Holography / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055100:Optical Fibers; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted