High-efficiency generation of ultralong, tunable, high-order nondiffracting beams

Nondiffracting beams (NDBs) have presented significant utility across various fields for their unique properties of self-healing, anti-diffraction, and high-localized intensity distribution. We present a versatile and flexible method for generating high-order nondiffracting beams predicated on the Fourier transformation of polymorphic beams produced by the free lenses with tunable shapes. Based on the tunability of the digital free lenses, we demonstrate the experimental generation of various long-distance nondiffracting beams, including Bessel beams, polymorphic generalized nondiffracting beams, tilted nondiffracting beams, asymmetric nondiffracting beams, and specially structured beams generated by the superposition of Bessel beams. Our method achieves efficiency of up to about seven times compared with complex beam shaping methods. The generated NDBs exhibit characteristics of extended propagation distance and high-quality intensity profiles consistent with the theoretical predictions. The proposed method is anticipated to find applications in laser processing, optical manipulation, and other fields.