Liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LCSLM) realizing equal-intensity multiple beams often has some features,i.e.,phase valley between two adjacent pixels,flyback region when phase decreases immediately from 2π to 0,and inevitable backplane curvature,which are different from those of most conventional diffractive optical elements (DOEs),such as static DOEs.For optimal intensity uniformity,equal-intensity multi-beam generation must be considered for these artifacts.We present a tunable-grating method in which the intensity uniformity can be improved by considering the LCSLM artifacts.For instance,tuning phase modulation depth of the grating,called isosceles triangle multilevel phase grating (ITMPG),can be used not only to improve the intensity uniformity,but also to fast steer four beams with narrow beamwidths,determined by the same effective aperture of ITMPG.Improved intensity uniformity and high relative diffraction efficiency are demonstrated through experiments with phase-only LCSLM.
