Generation and characterization of structured vector and partially coherent beams via digital holography and interferometric techniques

This dissertation establishes a unified framework for the generation, characterization, and control of structured light, a critical area in modern optics. A key experimental achievement is the development of a compact digital holography platform, utilizing a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), which enables simultaneous, full control over beam phase and polarization to generate vector beams. This platform successfully led to the first-ever experimental generation of vector Mathieu–Gauss beams. Furthermore, the work significantly advances the control of spatial coherence: we demonstrate a novel digital technique using the DMD to precisely engineer tunable coherence in different structured beams. By exploring the partially coherent Mathieu–Gauss modes, we showed that these structured beams robustly preserve their essential features and spectral properties even when coherence is significantly diminished, which is critical for some applications like data transferring and communication.