Phase hologram optimization for the generation of optical fields composed by an arbitrary number of plane waves

We investigate phase holograms (PHs) with optimum diffractive efficiency to generate an arbitrary optical field composed by superposition of an arbitrary number of plane waves. In our approach, we can generate different classes of optical fields since the amplitude and phase of each considered plane wave are independents. In addition, the optical field can be either periodic or nonperiodic. The resulting PH is optimum in the sense that the diffraction efficiency error is minimum. The error is defined as the difference between the upper bound diffraction efficiency and the diffraction efficiency of the proposed PH. Additionally, we guarantee that the optimal solution converges to the global minimum. Illustrative examples and experimental results are presented.