Nanostructured metasurfaces offer unique capabilities for subwavelength control of optical waves. Based on this potential, a large number of metasurfaces have been proposed recently as alternatives to standard optical elements. In most cases, however, these elements suffer from large chromatic aberrations, thus limiting their usefulness for multiwavelength or broadband applications. Here, in or...

Despite their esoteric sounding title, computer-generated holograms (CGHs) are now commonplace in a wide variety of applications and are a vital component in some surprisingly familiar consumer products. Such devices can be realized as fixed, etched structures and are commonly called diffractive optical elements (DOEs) or displayed on dynamically addressable liquid-crystal on silicon (LCOS) mic...

Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) with single light-sheet illumination enables rapid 3Dimaging of living cells. In this paper we show the design, fabrication and characterization a diffractive optical element producing several light sheets along an inclined tube for applications in flow-driven imaging. The element, which is based on multi-focal Fresnel zone plate linear grating, genera...

In an earlier publication [Appl. Opt. 47, 3722 (2008)] we suggested an adaptive optical lens, which consists of two cascaded diffractive optical elements (DOEs). Due to the Moiré-effect the combined optical element acts as a Fresnel zone lens with a refractive power that can be continuously adjusted by a mutual rotation of the two stacked DOEs. Here we present an experimental realization of thi...

We demonstrate the use of a binary diffractive optical element in a very simple setup to convert the multilobed beam from a low fill factor array of coherent laser diodes into a quasi-Gaussian beam. The phase profile of the grating is determined with a phase retrieval algorithm. Experimentally, the conversion efficiency reaches more than 44%. We also establish that this setup can be used to mak...

We present a new method for recording digital holograms under incoherent illumination. Light is reflected from a 3D object, propagates through a diffractive optical element (DOE), and is recorded by a digital camera. Three holograms are recorded sequentially, each for a different phase factor of the DOE. The three holograms are superposed in the computer, such that the result is a complex-value...

A novel diffractive optical element was constructed by means of gel electrophoresis. Five capillaries were filled with a methylene blue solution and inserted into a slab gel. An electrical potential was then applied to the slab gel. Methylene Blue in the capillaries underwent electrophoretic migration, forming clear blue bands in the gel. The bands functioned as a transmission grating, and diff...

Abstract Cylindrical vector beams with polarization singularities, transmission stability and turbulence resilient, are orthogonally structured light providing new degrees of freedom for multiplexing optical communications. The demultiplexing the CVBs high efficiency low crosstalk is vital importance practical applications. Here, we propose a lens-less CVB sorting approach set dielectric metasu...