title: Generation of femtosecond paraxial beams with arbitrary spatial distribution.
abstract: We present an approach to generate paraxial laser beams with arbitrary spatial distribution in the femtosecond time regime. The proposed technique is based upon a pair of volume phase holographic gratings working in parallel arrangement. It exploits the spatial coherence properties of the incoming laser beam in a compact and robust setup that mitigates angular and spatial chirp. The gratings were recorded in a photopolymerizable glass with a high optical damage threshold and a large optical throughput. Setup performance is studied and experimentally demonstrated by generating Laguerre-Gaussian femtosecond pulses.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Optica, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain. omartine@fis.ucm.es
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Martínez-Matos
authors.forename: José A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rodrigo
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Hernández-Garay
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Izquierdo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weigand
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Calvo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cheben
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vaveliuk
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bañares