Design of Lissajous beams.

Lissajous singularities were observed both theoretically and experimentally almost two decades ago, but their intrinsic properties and potential applications have remained relatively unexplored. In this Letter, we describe how to design a class of beams containing a single Lissajous singularity and discuss the parameters that control their structure and propagation characteristics. Such coherent Lissajous beams may find application in communication and subwavelength imaging.