Patent ID: 8379292

Claim:
An optical control device, comprising: a first optical control component, comprising a first component beam divider/combiner disposed along a first component input optical path of an incident optical wavefront; a first component binary MEMS device M 1 1 comprising an (n x,y ×m x,y ) M1 mirror array disposed optically downstream of the component beam divided/combiner along an M 1 optical path having a total optical path lengh L 1 1 ; a first component binary MEMS device M 2 1 comprising an (n x,y ×m x,y ) M2 mirror array disposed optically downstream of the first component beam divided/combiner along an M 2 1 optical path different than the M 1 1 optical path having a total optical path length L 2 1 ; and phase retarder means for making L 1 1 different than L 2 1 ; wherein an at least one M 1 1 sub array (X×Y) M1 is in an ON/OFF state and a complementary an at least one M 2 1 sub array (X×Y) M2 is in an OFF/ON state, further wherein an output wavefront propagating along a first component output optical wavefront path has a controlled modulation, further wherein L 1 1 is different than L 2 1 by an amount Δ 1 L 1 L 2 , where 0<Δ 1 L 1 L 2 <(2n+1)λ/2, where n=0, 1, 3, . . . so as to provide a phase shift<π radians; a second optical control component, comprising: a second component beam divider/combiner disposed along a second component input optical path of an input optical wavefront; a second component binary MEMS device M 1 2 comprising an (n x,y ×m x,y ) M1 mirror array disposed optically downstream of the second beam divider/combiner component along an M 1 2 optical path having a total optical path length L 1 2 ; a second component binary MEMS device M 2 2 comprising an (n x,y x m x,y ) M2 minor array disposed optically downstream of the second beam divider/combiner component along an M 2 2 optical path different than the M 1 2 optical path having a total optical path length L 2 2 ; and phase retarder means for making L 1 2 different than L 2 2 , wherein an at least one M 1 2 sub array (X×Y) M2 is in an ON/OFF state and a complementary an at least one M 2 2 sub array (X×Y) M2 is in an OFF/ON state, further wherein an output wavefront propagating along a second component output optical wavefront path has a controlled modulation; an input beam divider disposed optically intermediate an incoming wavefront and the first and second optical control components, wherein the output optical wavefront from the input beam divider is the input optical wavefront to the first and second optical control components; an output beam combiner disposed to optically combine the respective first and second component modulated output wavefronts; and phase shifting means for providing a controlled phase difference between the first and second component phase modulated output wavefronts, wherein a resultant output wavefront has a different phase than the input optical wavefront by an amount θ(x,y).