Calibration of wavefront distortion in light modulator setup by Fourier analysis of multi-beam interference

Abstract

We present a method to calibrate wavefront distortion of the spatial light modulator setup by registering far field images of several Gaussian beams diffracted off the modulator. The Fourier transform of resulting interference images reveals phase differences between typically 5 movable points on the modulator. Repeating this measurement yields wavefront surface. Next, the amplitude efficiency is calibrated be registering near field image. As a verification we produced a superposition of 7th and 8th Bessel beams with different phase velocities and observed their interference.