Laser beam shaping with magnetic fluid-based liquid deformable mirrors

A new controllable laser beam shaping technique is demonstrated, where a magnetic fluid-based liquid deformable mirror is proposed to redistribute the laser phase profile and thus change the propagation property of the beam. The mirror is driven by an inner miniature actuator array along with a large outer actuator. The inner actuator array is used for deforming the magnetic fluid surface, while the outer actuator is used to linearize the fluid surface response and amplify the magnitude of the deflection. In comparison to other laser beam shaping techniques, this technique offers the advantages such as simplicity, low cost, large shape deformation, and high adaptability. Based on a fabricated prototype of the liquid deformable mirror, an experimental AO system was set up to produce a desired conical surface shape that shaped the incident beam into a Bessel beam. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed technique for laser beam shaping.