Heuristic self-photography approach for flat-top beam generation with arbitrary beam intensity distribution

Abstract Flat-top beam (FTB) is a type of laser illumination with broad applications. To achieve an easily accessible and cost-effective flat-top intensity profile, a self-photography approach was developed in this study. Utilizing the linear region of the Hurter–Driffield (HD our self-photography method provides an alternative approach to generating uniform illumination with arbitrary intensity profiles, regardless of beam coherence properties. This newly developed cost-effective film approach can be easily incorporated into systems without excessive additional components. This straightforward implementation can be adapted for various illumination needs, such as high-order beam modes and multiple beam sources.