PIECEWISE LINEAR SPATIAL PHASE MODULATOR USING DUAL-MODE MICROMIRROR ARRAYS FOR TEMPORAL AND DIFFRACTIVE FOURIER OPTICS

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention provides a spatial light phase modulator, which can perform piecewise linear phase modulation of a light beam (102). This spatial light phase modulator includes an array of movable micromirrors (108) and an array of actuators (206, 214). Each actuator of the array of actuators is movably coupled to one micromirror (310) of the array of movable micromirrors and can move the micromirror both vertically and rotationally. Additionally, the present invention provides an optical function generator that is a femtosecond pulse shaper. This optical function generator includes a diffraction grating that disperses an input pulse into a dispersed spectrum, a lens assembly (106) to focus the dispersed spectrum onto a micromirror array, and the micromirror array to provide spatial filtering to the dispersed spectrum to provide the filtered spectrum.