A practical guide to digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs) for wavefront shaping

Sébastien M. Popoff; Louis Malosse; Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Cuevas; Yaron Bromberg; Jean Commère; Marie Glanc; Raphaël Galicher; Maxime W. Matthès

doi:10.1088/2515-7647/ae60d5

A practical guide to digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs) for wavefront shaping

Sébastien M. Popoff^*
, Louis Malosse
, Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Cuevas
, Yaron Bromberg
, Jean Commère
, Marie Glanc
, Raphaël Galicher
, Maxime W. Matthès

^*Corresponding author for this work

Racah Institute of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Digital micromirror devices have gained popularity in wavefront shaping, offering a high frame rate alternative to liquid crystal spatial light modulators. They are relatively inexpensive, offer high resolution, are easy to operate, and a single device can be used in a broad optical bandwidth. However, some technical drawbacks must be considered to achieve optimal performance. These issues, often undocumented by manufacturers, mostly stem from the device's original design for video projection applications. Herein, we present a guide to characterize and mitigate these effects. Our focus is on providing simple and practical solutions that can be easily incorporated into a typical wavefront shaping setup.

Original language	English
Journal	JPhys Photonics
Volume	8
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ae60d5
State	Published - Jun 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

Keywords

DMD
spatial light modulator
wavefront shaping

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10.1088/2515-7647/ae60d5

Cite this

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abstract = "Digital micromirror devices have gained popularity in wavefront shaping, offering a high frame rate alternative to liquid crystal spatial light modulators. They are relatively inexpensive, offer high resolution, are easy to operate, and a single device can be used in a broad optical bandwidth. However, some technical drawbacks must be considered to achieve optimal performance. These issues, often undocumented by manufacturers, mostly stem from the device's original design for video projection applications. Herein, we present a guide to characterize and mitigate these effects. Our focus is on providing simple and practical solutions that can be easily incorporated into a typical wavefront shaping setup.",

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AU - Commère, Jean

AU - Glanc, Marie

AU - Galicher, Raphaël

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A practical guide to digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs) for wavefront shaping

Abstract

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Keywords

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