Yujia YuanPhysical systems · Stanford EE

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Generate patterns with laser light

ScaleOther
PlaceUniversity of Waterloo
FieldFourier optics
Period2018
Fig. 1 — Rose-pattern output of a multimode fiber from a partially-coherent laser input.
Fig. 1 — Rose-pattern output of a multimode fiber from a partially-coherent laser input.
Fig. 2 — Far-field diffraction from a hexagonal slit array — Fourier transform of the slit geometry.
Fig. 2 — Far-field diffraction from a hexagonal slit array — Fourier transform of the slit geometry.

When talking about lasers, what's the first thing in your mind? I assume it's frontier optical lab, photonics research, nature papers and so on. In the meantime, we can make them romantic rather than serious.

The first experiment coupled a partially coherent laser into a multimode fiber. Many transverse modes propagated together and interfered at the output, interweaving into a rose pattern on a wall. The second experiment sent a green laser through a hexagonal slit pattern and observed the far-field diffraction pattern. This pattern is the fourier transform of the slit shape and arrangement