Structured Light with Spatial Light Modulators

Structured light has gained prominence of late, where light is tailored in its many degrees of freedom, from space to time, and giving rise to novel complex optical fields and their applications. The process can also be run in reverse for detectors of structured light. Driving the popularity of the field is the ability to execute these transformations with commercially available display technology in the form of rewritable spatial light modulators, where computer generated holograms are loaded as simple images to the display, affording complex shaping of light at a click of a button. In this Spotlight, we outline in a tutorial style of writing how to get started with shaping light, covering all the major families of structured light, including new additions that focus on vectorial light, non-diffracting light, modal decomposition of light and some modern applications of digitally controlled structured light. The book provides many examples of how to do so, and all the code necessary to get started immediately. It will be an invaluable aid to anyone who wants to tailor their light for advanced applications and fundamental science alike.