Diffractive and micro-optics for wavefront manipulation

Abstract

The exploitation of micro-optical technologies in laser beam shaping and wavefront manipulation applications has a long and distinguished history. The functional flexibility of high resolution, allglass phase only microstructures, combined with their relative immunity to laser-induced damage mechanisms, allows the creation of arbitrary beam profiles from a wide range of different laser configurations. In this paper, we shall review some of the methods used in the design and fabrication of laser beam shaping and wavefront manipulation micro-optical components.