Three-dimensional light modulation using phase-only spatial light modulator

The simultaneous modulation of coherent light distributions on several closely spaced planes by one phase-only spatial light modulator is described to create 3-D light distribution. The pure phase distribution on the phase-only spatial light modulator is retrieved by a new multiplane iteration method based on the Gerchberg-Saxton iteration method, which consecutively propagates the coherent light on several parallel planes with amplitude constraints. A comparison between our proposed method and the complex distribution addition method is presented by numerical simulation. The result indicates that a sharp grayscale image is realized on each closely spaced plane by our proposed method, implying potential applications both in 3-D holographic displays and optical tweezers. (c) 2009 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [DOI: 10.1117/1.3076211]