利用纯相位型液晶空间光调制器实现空心光束

为了提高激光系统的整体效率,需要将出射光强整形为空心分布。采用纯相位型液晶空间光调制器整形近高斯分布光强到空心分布。基于能量守恒定律和等光程原理,分析了纯相位型液晶空间光调制器光束整形系统,得出了整形系统所需的相位分布。采用衍射光学方法,数值模拟了整形效果,讨论了入射光束束腰半径和强度分布等因素对整形效果的影响。利用纯相位型液晶空间光调制器实验实现了空心光束,实验测得的转换效率大于99%。     

利用纯相位型液晶空间光调制器实现空心光束

为了提高激光系统的整体效率,需要将出射光强整形为空心分布。采用纯相位型液晶空间光调制器整形近高斯分布光强到空心分布。基于能量守恒定律和等光程原理,分析了纯相位型液晶空间光调制器光束整形系统,得出了整形系统所需的相位分布。采用衍射光学方法,数值模拟了整形效果,讨论了入射光束束腰半径和强度分布等因素对整形效果的影响。利用纯相位型液晶空间光调制器实验实现了空心光束,实验测得的转换效率大于99%。     

反射式液晶空间光调制器用于光束会聚控制

根据偏心透镜组的结构原理,利用液晶空间光调制器(LC-SLM)对其结构进行了优化。对LC-SLM等效透镜功能的原理进行了分析,模拟仿真了利用LC-SLM对光束进行调制的结果。实验验证了LC-SLM通过加载菲涅尔透镜相位图,实现了对光束会聚功能,并且通过耦合位移相位因子可以实现会聚光斑平移的功能,能够代替在偏心透镜组中实现同一功能的透镜。配合后续的透镜组,理论上可以控制光束实现大角度的扫描。     

反射式液晶空间光调制器电控光束偏转

为获得较大的光束电控偏转范围,使用空间分辨力高达8 m的反射式液晶空间光调制器实现了对入射632 nm激光的电控偏转。利用双光束共焦干涉方法测量了液晶空间光调制器的电控相位延迟特性,最大相移量可达3。根据二元光学理论和器件的电控相位延迟特性,设计了周期台阶相位模式和相应的加载灰度图,以最大衍射效率实现对入射光束的闪耀电控偏转。结果表明:相位模式台阶数为8时,可以实现10 mrad的光束偏转,闪耀级次衍射效率可达46%。利用二元光学的衍射模型对影响衍射效率的关键因素进行了分析,认为器件较低的填充因子和周期台阶模式相位重置点诱导的指向矢回程区是限制光束衍射效率的主要因素。     

Super-resolution imaging in digital holography by using dynamic grating with a spatial light modulator

A super-resolution imaging method using dynamic grating based on liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) is developed to improve the resolution of a digital holographic system. The one-dimensional amplitude cosine grating is loaded on the SLM, which is placed between the object and hologram plane in order to collect more high-frequency components towards CCD plane. The point spread function of the system is given to confirm the separation condition of reconstructed images for multiple diffraction orders. The simulation and experiments are carried out for a standard resolution test target as a sample, which confirms that the imaging resolution is improved from 55.7 μm to 31.3 μm compared with traditional lensless Fourier transform digital holography. The unique advantage of the proposed method is that the period of the grating can be programmably adjusted according to the separation condition.     

Multi-location laser ignition using a spatial light modulator towards improving automotive gasoline engine performance

We report on a study into multi-location laser ignition (LI) with a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM), to improve the performance of a single cylinder automotive gasoline engine. Three questions are addressed: i/ How to deliver a multi-beam diffracted pattern into an engine cylinder, through a small opening, while avoiding clipping? ii/ How much incident energy can a SLM handle (optical damage threshold) and how many simultaneous beam foci could thus be created? ; iii/ Would the multi-location sparks created be sufficiently intense and stable to ignite an engine and, if so, what would be their effect on engine performance compared to single-location LI? Answers to these questions were determined as follows. Multi-beam diffracted patterns were created by applying computer generated holograms (CGHs) to the SLM. An optical system for the SLM was developed via modelling in ZEMAX, to cleanly deliver the multi-beam patterns into the combustion chamber without clipping. Optical damage experiments were carried out on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) samples provided by the SLM manufacturer and the maximum safe pulse energy to avoid SLM damage found to be 60 mJ. Working within this limit, analysis of the multi-location laser induced sparks showed that diffracting into three identical beams gave slightly insufficient energy to guarantee 100% sparking, so subsequent engine experiments used 2 equal energy beams laterally spaced by 4 mm. The results showed that dual-location LI gave more stable combustion and higher engine power output than single-location LI, for increasingly lean air-fuel mixtures. The paper concludes by a discussion of how these results may be exploited.     

Experimental validation of closed-loop adaptive optics based on a self-referencing interferometer wavefront sensor and a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator

A closed-loop adaptive optics system based on a self-referencing interferometer wavefront sensor (SRI WFS) using phase-shifting point-diffraction technique and an electrically addressed phase-only liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (LC SLM) is built and validated experimentally. The wavefront aberration of incoming beam is directly measured by analyzing four frames phase-shifted interferograms captured by a single CCD camera in two camera shots, and then by loading the conjugate function onto the SLM the wavefront aberration is corrected. The proposed scheme does not rely on any complicated control algorithm or wavefront-reconstruction algorithm and can achieve high-resolution and high-accuracy correction. Closed-loop correction results of single order Zernike aberrations and a Kolmogorov turbulence phase screen show that considerable improvements in the Strehl ratio (of greater than 0.94) is achieved.     

A ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator encoded with orthogonal arrays and its optimized design for laser speckle reduction

In laser projectors, speckle reduction can be achieved by projecting a changing binary phase diffuser onto the screen. Here, we sequentially encoded a commercialized ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator (FLC-SLM) with the rows of a two-level orthogonal array of order sixty-four, thus obtaining a changing binary phase diffuser. With the help of this binary phase diffuser, the subjective speckle contrast ratio on the screen is reduced from C_b=0.71 to C_a=0.1. Based on the experimental results, a simplified transparent FLC-SLM design is first proposed. This newly designed FLC-SLM has two phase modulation depths and can be driven with the passive matrix addressing scheme. Therefore, the control electronics of the proposed FLC-SLM can be significantly simplified compared to the currently used one.     

Optical phase-based beamformer using MZM SSB modulation combined with crystal polarization optics and a spatial light modulator

The performance of a widely tunable phase-based beamformer for phased array antennas using a new technique to cross-polarized the carrier and the sideband, in order to allow the phase control by means of a spatial light modulator, is experimentally demonstrated. The technique relies on the combination of single sideband amplitude modulation (SSB) using a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and birefringence (to cross-polarized the carrier and the sideband). The architecture has the potential of controlling multiple independent beams simultaneously. The beamformer feeds an eight elements array showing an insertion loss and a reset speed of around 12 dB and 70 ms, respectively. Far-field antenna patterns between 7.5 GHz and 8.5 GHz for nine elevation angles within a range of ±20° have been measured showing beam steering capability, amplitude distribution weighting as well as multibeam operation.     

Application of a liquid crystal spatial light modulator on optical roughness measurements by a speckle correlation method using two refractive indices

A system of roughness measurements using a CCD camera and a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LCSLM) has been developed. The scattered light patterns from the surface, which is covered by liquids with several different refractive indices, are acquired by the CCD camera and stored in a frame grabber in a computer. The superposition of two arbitrary patterns is calculated by the computer and displayed on the LCSLM. It is then illuminated by coherent light to produce interference fringes of equal inclination at infinity. The surface roughness can be determined through the relationship between the fringe visibility and the difference of refractive indices. The performance of this system is estimated by experiments.