Abstract

In a recent paper,¹ the authors used generalized projections to design phase masks that radiate a prescribed light intensity pattern in the far-field. In this paper, we repeat the experiment but restrict the phases to one of N quantized values. The performance of the continuous-phase case is compared with that of the quantized-phase case. The reduction in performance in going from analog to digital can be ameliorated by increasing the number of radiators. An important application of this device is in optical interconnects where the beam could be dynamically switched in a programmable fashion to enable an optical connection. The mathematical method used to design the phase mask can also be used to generate beams that have a sharp null at the angle of interfering radiation.

© 1992 Optical Society of America