Electrical control of shape of laser beam using axially symmetric liquid crystal cells.

This work demonstrates the electrical tuning of laser beam shape using an axially symmetric dye-dope liquid crystal (ASDDLC) device that is fabricated using a photo-alignment method. Various beam shapes can be obtained by linearly polarized Gaussian laser beams through an ASDDLC device under various applied voltages. The far-field intensity patterns generated by laser beams of selected shapes under various applied voltages are simulated, and the results are consistent with experiment. A rotatable petal-shaped beam is obtained by controlling the polarization of the output donut-shaped beam. The tenability of beam shape of light with a wavelength of 1064 nm, which is commonly used in biomedical applications, is also demonstrated.