Full control over the electric field using four liquid crystal arrays.

ABSTRACT

We present a femtosecond pulse shaper setup that is capable of shaping the phase, amplitude, and polarization simultaneously and independently. The modulator utilizes four liquid crystal arrays, a pair of half-wave plates, and a polarizer to gain full control of the electrical field. This is done in a common-path common-optic scheme without using interferometry. The functionality of the setup is demonstrated by using systematic parameter scans and example pulses.