Single ultra-high-definition spatial light modulator enabling highly efficient generation of fully structured vector beams.

Ultra-high-definition (UHD) spatial light modulators (SLMs) enhance the degree of freedom in the versatile engineering of optical field. Among efforts to explore the capability of SLMs, enhancing the efficiency of light utilization is an everlasting quest to find SLM-based applications. We propose a new method to efficiently generate arbitrary vector beams with a phase-only UHD-SLM. By enabling the UHD-SLM with a rectangle window to work in an in-line and split-screen manner with the help of a polarizing beam splitter, the total conversion efficiency as high as 49% of light beams is realized. Several complex beams, including cylindrical vector beams and higher-order Poincaré sphere beams, are experimentally demonstrated. Our method can facilitate application of SLM in optical field manipulation.