Lasers producing tailored beams

Abstract

Compact lasers that can produce a range of beam patterns are important for progress in several areas, including the improvement of optical tweezers¹, ultra-high-density optical memory² and microfluidics³. Here we engineer photonic crystals to generate semiconductor lasers that produce a range of beam patterns while maintaining stable single-mode oscillation. Our results could contribute to the realization of compact lasers that are capable of producing diverse beam patterns on demand.