Holographic generation of periodic wave fields

Abstract

Longitudinally interfering Bessel beams have been demonstrated to exhibit a self-imaging effect which offers more flexibility in optical micromanipulation than ordinary Bessel beams. These superimposed Bessel beams or SBB can be made available using a modified version of Durnin’s lens-annulus method. In this paper SBBs are stored in a photorefractive crystal at λ₁ = 543.5nm and reconstructed at λ₁ and λ₂ = 633nm. Retrieved beams at λ₁ were found to exhibit the same periodicity as the original beam while λ₂ reconstructions were found to have a modified period. Results show the potential of volume holographic methods for SBB generation as well as a promising new technique for modulating the SBB periodicity through the dual wavelength method.