The reconfiguration time of a holographic beam-shaping device using a liquid
crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) has been drastically decreased by five
orders of magnitude to reach the microsecond range (~5 µs). The
method involves an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) placed in front of the SLM
which points the laser beam towards different pre-addressed regions of the
liquid crystal plate. Because the addressing signal is not changed, the
reconfiguration time is mainly governed by the AOM response time. Moreover,
this method allows us to clean up the transient regime by suppressing the bleed
effect usually observed in the standard SLM reconfiguration.