Generation of hollow Gaussian beam by phase-only filtering

We propose a novel phase retrieval algorithm in Hankel (or called Fourier-Bessel) transform domains by using Monte-Carlo method. Based on the proposed algorithm, we investigate the generation of Gaussian-like beams, such as hollow Gaussian beam, Bessel-Gaussian beam and Laguerre-Gaussian beam, with double phase filtering operations. The phase distributions of filters are determined by employing the proposed phase retrieval algorithm. The advantage of the method is that the total energy of the beam is conservative. Numerical simulations are shown to demonstrate the validity of the scheme. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America