Optically-addressed spatial light modulators

The performance characteristics of three unique optically-addressed spatial light modulators (SLMs) have been experimentally investigated. The measured parameters include resolution, visibility, imaging response time, and write light sensitivity. The modulators investigated include two relatively new technologies, the ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) SLM from the University of Colorado-Boulder and the amorphous silicon photoconductive twisted nematic liquid crystal SLM from GEC-Marconi Research, and a well-established industry benchmark, the Hughes Liquid Crystal Light Valve (LCLV).     

Genetic optimization of modulation characteristics for two twisted nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulators

A single twisted nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulator may suffer from coupled amplitude modulation and a phase modulation capability of less than 2, although almost all panels can achieve . Two twisted nematic liquid crystal panels can be combined in an optical system to produce a total phase modulation of at least 2, and a minimal coupled amplitude modulation. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the combined modulation characteristics of two liquid crystal panels in a multiplicative architecture. Simulation results and experimental verification are presented which show a substantial reduction in the combined amplitude modulation, and a total phase modulation of 2.     

Contrast-improved joint transform correlator using spatial light modulators

When real time optical pattern recognition is carried out by means of spatial light modulators, a practical situation may arise in which the size of the Fourier transform and the intensity of the light source are fixed. Then, provided the input scene and the size of the spatial light modulator allow it, an interesting possibility for improving the overall intensity in the Fourier plane is the replication of the scene, either along a regular lattice structure or a random replication. In this work we analyse the usefulness of these methods, both to obtain diffraction images or cross-correlation between images in a joint transform correlator.     

Progress in spatial light modulator performance: a status report

Spatial light modulators (SLM) developed to date have fallen into one of two categories, optically addressed or electronically addressed. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, and successful implementation of optical processing in real world applications may depend upon a combination of the two. This article briefly reviews the concept of optical information processing, discusses the development of SLMs from their early beginnings, and concludes with a discussion of where the field is now, and where it is going in the next few years.     

铁电液晶光寻址空间光调制器性能分析

针对氢化非晶硅/铝/铁电液晶结构的光寻址空间光调制器（OASLM）,依据其等效电路模型,利用Pspice和Matlab软件对其分辨率、响应速度、对比度及灰度响应等性能进行了分析。结果表明:在铁电液晶（FLC）层厚度一定的情况下,减小光敏感层（a-Si:H层）的厚度可以提高FLC-OASLM的调制传递函数,从而提高分辨率;在其他参量一定的情况下,FLC-OASLM的响应速度随写入光光强增大而增大（写入光从0.08 mW/cm2增大到10 mW/cm2,延迟时间减小110 s,上升时间减小154 s）,随擦除光光强增大而减小（擦除光从0增大到1 mW/cm2,延迟时间增大41 s,上升时间仅增加3 s）;FLC-OASLM的对比度随控制光光强增大而增大,最终趋于一个稳定值21∶1;在其他参量不变时,随着擦除光光强的增大,输出光响应呈现等级下降,且发现当擦除光光强达到一定值（3 mW/cm2）后,擦除光的改变主要影响下降时间而对上升时间几乎无影响;合理设计激励源信号波形,可以得到超过十级灰度输出,表明擦除光具有实现FLC OASLM的灰度响应的功能。     

用液晶空间光调制器产生光阱阵列

液晶空间光调制器能够方便地用于制作各种衍射型光学元件, 但液晶空间光调制器存在分辨率有限的缺点, 本文提出了用液晶空间光调制器制作相位型光栅, 产生一维和二维光阱阵列的新方案, 用迭代傅里叶级数算法优化设计光栅的相位分布, 在不改变空间光调制器硬件参数设置的情况下, 充分利用和发掘了空间光调制器的优点, 同时又能较好地回避其所存在的缺陷. 根据现有的空间光调制器的技术参数, 模拟仿真设计光栅, 计算光强分布, 结果表明: 用大失谐、小功率激光照明, 能够产生具有很高峰值光强和光强梯度的光阱阵列, 囚禁冷原子的光学偶极势达到mK量级, 对原子的作用力远大于原子的重力.     

What spatial light modulators can do for optical microscopy

With the availability of high‐resolution miniature spatial light modulators (SLMs) new methods in optical microscopy have become feasible. The SLMs discussed in this review consist of miniature liquid crystal displays with micron‐sized pixels that can modulate the phase and/or amplitude of an optical wavefront. In microscopy they can be used to control and shape the sample illumination, or they can act as spatial Fourier filters in the imaging path. Some of these applications are reviewed in this article. One of them, called spiral phase contrast, generates isotropic edge enhancement of thin phase samples or spiral‐shaped interference fringes for thicker phase samples, which can be used to reconstruct the phase topography from a single on‐axis interferogram. If SLMs are used for both illumination control and spatial Fourier filtering, this combination for instance allows for the generalization of the Zernike phase contrast principle. The new SLM‐based approach improves the effective resolution and avoids some shortcomings and artifacts of the traditional method. The main advantage of SLMs in microscopy is their flexibility, as one can realize various operation modes in the same setup, without the need for changing any hardware components, simply by electronically switching the phase pattern displayed on the SLMs.     

Nonlinear image self-filtering with liquid crystal spatial light modulator

Nonlinear spatial filtering is realized due to the electro-optical effect in spatial light modulators (SLMs). Optical methods with nonlinear filtering are suggested for various optical applications such as optical inspection of photolithography masks, wavefront sensor, etc. A fast optical response of the SLM allows optical inspection with a video (or faster) rate. The optical system proposed is tolerant to the vibrations and temperature variations because of the dynamic properties of the SLM.     

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。     

液晶空间光调制器在光信息综合实验中的应用

提出了一种把液晶空间光调制器应用于光电信息综合实验的光学实验系统。系统中的空间光调制器采用光寻址液晶光阀和电寻址液晶光阀。给出了利用这一系统开设的四个光学信息处理实验。实践表明,该系统具有较好的教学效果。     

液晶空间光调制器在自适应光学中的应用

本文主要包括两方面的内容,一方面描述用液晶光阀产生空间与时间性能可控的小尺寸薄相位屏;另一方面则讨论用液晶空间光调制器实现波前相位畸变校正的可能性。从而表明,这类价格低廉、结构简单而性能可靠的非线性光学器件可望在高性能新型自适应光学系统中得到广泛应用。     

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。     

Light efficiency of liquid crystal spatial light modulator using,for wavefront corrector in AO

Liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) has a series of attractive characteristics as a wavefront corrector in adaptive optics system such as compactness, high density integration, low cost and possibility of batch production. However it also suffers from several drawbacks such as low light efficiency. We present an analysis of the light efficiency of the phase by only using LC-SLM for wavefront corrector in AO system. The factors of polarization sensitive, pixel grid structure, phase quantization and limited phase stroke are discussed in theory. Simulation results are given based on a math model of a LC-SLM. The intensity variation results from pixel structure are measured. The light efficiency of the LC-SLM is tested for generating a series of Zernike aberrations. The effect of phase wrapping method is analyzed and tested. We demonstrate that the light efficiency reduces these factors. Experiment results from the use of the phase only liquid crystal spatial light modulator confirms these conclusions.     

Pixel size and pitch measurements of liquid crystal spatial light modulator by optical diffraction

We present a simple technique for the determination of pixel size and pitch of liquid crystal (LC) based spatial light modulator (SLM). The proposed method is based on optical diffraction from pixelated LC panel that has been modeled as a two-dimensional array of rectangular apertures. A novel yet simple, two-plane measurement technique is implemented to circumvent the difficulty in absolute distance measurement. Experimental results are presented for electrically addressed twisted nematic LC-SLM removed from the display projector.     

纯相位液晶空间光调制器拟合泽尼克像差性能分析

纯相位液晶空间光调制器作为波前校正器构成的高分辨率、低能耗、价格低廉、易于控制的自适应光学系统受到越来越多的关注.作为一种新型波前校正器件,它对波前像差的校正能力是反映其在自适应光学系统中应用的一个重要的指标,因此有必要仔细地研究它对各种像差的校正能力,以确定其可能的应用范围.波前校正器对各阶泽尼克像差的拟合效果有效地反映了该器件对不同像差的校正能力.利用256×256像素的纯相位液晶空间光调制器(LC-SLM)产生不同系数的前36项泽尼克像差分析LC-SLM对不同像差的校正能力.讨论了填充因子、离散像素 关键词： 液晶空间光调制器 相位调制 自适应光学 泽尼克多项式     

Variable shape or variable diameter flattop beam tailored by using an adaptive weight FFT-based iterative algorithm and a phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator

The variable shape or variable diameter flattop beam shaping technique by using an adaptive weight FFT-based iterative algorithm (AWFFT-IA) and a phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator (PO-LCSLM) is demonstrated. The algorithm is used to design the phase distribution for tailoring central symmetric laser beam into the desired shape or diameter flattop beam, the PO-LCSLM serves as dynamically programmable phase filters, which depend on the designed phase distributions, to retard the incident wavefront as we would expect. The experimental results show that the technique can realize variable shape or variable diameter flattop beam shaping.     

Diffractive characteristics of the liquid crystal spatial light modulator

The liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC SLM) is very suitable for wavefront correction and optical testing and can produce a wavefront with large phase change and high accuracy. The LC SLM is composed of thousands of pixels and the pixel size and shape have effects on the diffractive characteristics of the LC SLM. This paper investigates the pixel effect on the phase of the wavefront with the scalar diffractive theory. The results show that the maximum optical path difference modulation is 41\,$\mu$m to produce the paraboloid wavefront with the peak to valley accuracy better than $\la$/10. Effects of the mismatch between the pixel and the period, and black matrix on the diffraction efficiency of the LC SLM are also analysed with the Fresnel phase lens model. The ability of the LC SLM is discussed for optical testing and wavefront correction based on the calculated results. It shows that the LC SLM can be used as a wavefront corrector and a compensator.     

基于液晶空间光调制器的全息显示

在传统的纯相位全息显示系统中, 一般基于快速傅里叶变换(FFT)算法来计算相位全息图, 在FFT的计算中需要遵循Nyquist采样定理, 因此, 重建图像的尺寸往往受限于空间光调制器的固定采样率. 这个限制可以通过卷积算法或者两步菲涅耳衍射算法来解决, 但是需要使用多个FFT的计算, 导致计算量增大. 鉴于此, 提出了一种基于透镜的纯相位全息图计算方法. 在全息图的计算中, 通过透镜的成像原理建立一个采样率可变的虚拟全息面, 通过调节相应的距离参数使得在全息图的计算中可以任意调节原始图像的采样率, 摆脱了传统方法中液晶空间光调制器带宽积对重建图像尺寸的限制, 并且这种算法只需使用一次FFT就能达到变采样率的衍射计算, 大幅提高了全息图的计算速度. 数值模拟及光学实验结果证明了此方法可以在全息显示光学系统中清晰地重建不同尺寸的图像. 同时该系统可以有效地消除由空间光调制器的像素化结构带来的零级衍射.     

Recursive wavefront aberration correction method for LCoS spatial light modulators

We present two accurate and relatively simple interferometric methods for the correction of wavefront aberrations of about 3 wavelengths (3λ) in spatial light modulators (SLMs) of the liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) type. The first is based on a recursive use of a wavefront fitting algorithm in a Wyko™ interferometer, in which Zernike polynomials are employed as the basis functions. We show here that the successive use of only three measurements is required to obtain a peak-to-valley (PV) error as low as λ/10, with an uncertainty of λ/30, in the compensated wavefront. The second method makes use of the actual optical path difference (OPD) computed by the interferometer at each pixel of the image of the interferogram of the LCoS modulator (LCoS-M). From numerical interpolation of these OPD values we were able to assign the required OPD compensation at each pixel of the LCoS-M. With this method, PV errors of the compensated wavefront as low as λ/16, with an uncertainty of λ/30, were obtained for the entire LCoS-M, or of λ/33 for the disk that we used as the domain of the Zernike polynomials in the first method.