Generation Of Large Spot Arrays From A Single Laser Beam By Multiple Imaging With Binary Phase Gratings

Abstract

A simple technique for generating large (100 x 100+) arrays of uniform intensity spots of good contrast is proposed. One application of such spot arrays is as power supplies for optical logic devices in two-dimensional optical computing/switching architectures. This spot generation technique utilizes binary phase gratings both to produce small spot arrays (-20 x 20) and to multiply image them. Since the gratings need produce only small numbers of spots, the design computation and fabrication constraints are simplified. An experimental demonstration of this technique for an 81 x 81 array is presented along with a discussion of potential limitations.