Demonstration of ternary-phase-array illumination based on the generalised phase contrast method

In this paper we demonstrate the successful application of the generalised phase contrast (GPC) method to the implementation of a binary intensity array generator based on ternary-phase modulation. Using a ternary-phase rather than a binary-phase approach for encoding input patterns increases the range of array compression factors that can be achieved.

We show experimental results for the generation of two binary intensity arrays with compression factors of two, using ternary-phase modulation with different modulation patterns and filters. The phase pattern generating the output intensity pattern is displayed on a computer-controlled phase-only spatial light modulator (PO-SLM).