Method to generate complex quasinondiffracting optical lattices.

We put forward a technique that allows generating quasinondiffracting light beams with a variety of complex transverse shapes. We show that, e.g., spiraling patterns, patterns featuring curved or bent bright stripes, or patterns featuring arbitrary combinations of harmonic, Bessel, Mathieu, and parabolic beams occupying different domains in the transverse plane can be produced. The quasinondiffracting patterns open up a wealth of opportunities for the manipulation of matter and optical waves, colloidal and living particles, with applications in biophysics, and quantum, nonlinear and atom optics.