Transformation of a LG₁₀ beam into an optical bottle beam

We have demonstrated that a simple diaphragm can play the role of a very cheap reconfigurable diffractive optical element allowing the generation of interesting laser beam patterns. For instance, a truncated Laguerre–Gauss LG₁₀ beam (one peak surrounded by one ring) can be transformed in the focal plane of a lens into an optical bottle beam (OBB) which consists to a dark (or minimal intensity) region surrounded by higher intensity light in the three principal directions. Depending on the beam truncation, one can also observe a flat-top intensity profile. (paper)