Customizing speckle intensity statistics

Speckles commonly satisfy Rayleigh statistics. However, in many applications, non-Rayleigh speckles with customized intensity statistics are desirable. Here, we present a general method for customizing the intensity statistics of speckle patterns on a target plane. By judiciously modulating the phase front of a monochromatic laser beam, we experimentally generate speckle patterns with arbitrarily tailored intensity probability density functions. Relative to Rayleigh speckles, our customized speckles exhibit radically different topologies yet maintain the same spatial correlation length. The customized speckles are fully developed, ergodic, and stationary–with circular non-Gaussian statistics for the complex field. Propagating away from the target plane, the customized speckles revert back to Rayleigh speckles. This work provides a versatile framework for tailoring speckle patterns with varied applications in microscopy, imaging, and optical manipulation.