4D Light Bullets with Programmable Vector Field Distributions

The structuring of laser light with non-diffracting vector distributions, optical vortices, or complex angular momentum distributions are being synthesized and reported on with increasing frequency[1]. We present a system for the synthesis of arbitrary intensity and phase distributions[2] by combining a number of carrier-envelope-phase stabilized, optically coherent, frequency and spatial combs. Each combs has tunable amplitude, phase, and polarization while maintaining 40 mrad of intracomb phase noise, corresponding to 33 as of timing jitter. Adjusting the differences between adjacent combs allows us to synthesize a combined vector field with programmable structure. While we illustrate this technique in free space, the principles can be exploited to allow delivery of coherent programmable arrays or integrated waveguides for technologies such as on-chip particle acceleration or phase stable, atto-second timed investigation of material dynamics.

1. Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina, et al. "Roadmap on structured light." Journal of Optics 19.1 (2016): 013001.
2. Lemons, Randy, et al. "Integrated Structured Light Architectures." arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.14400 (2020).