Patent ID: 7239374

Claim:
A light application apparatus comprising: an image formation optical modulation element provided with a plurality of phase steps, a light beam which is entered into the optical modulation element being phase-modulated by the phase steps and exits from the optical modulation element as a light beam forming a first light intensity distribution on a predetermined plane; and an optical system arranged between the optical modulation element and the predetermine plane, the optical system dividing the phase-modulated light beam into at least two non-interference light fluxes forming second and third light intensity distributions on the desired plane and different optical characteristics from each other, and projecting a light beam including the divided two light fluxes, the light intensity distributions of the projected light fluxes being combined with each other, so that the projected light beam forms a fourth light intensity distribution with an inverse peak shape on the predetermined plane, the first to fourth light intensity distributions being different from each other.