Spatial light modulators,as dynamic flat-panel optical devices,have witnessed rapid development over the past two decades,concomitant with the advancements in micro-and opto-electronic integration technology.In partic...Spatial light modulators,as dynamic flat-panel optical devices,have witnessed rapid development over the past two decades,concomitant with the advancements in micro-and opto-electronic integration technology.In particular,liquid-crystal spatial light modulator(LC-SLM)technologies have been regarded as versatile tools for generating arbitrary optical fields and tailoring all degrees of freedom beyond just phase and amplitude.These devices have gained significant interest in the nascent field of structured light in space and time,facilitated by their ease of use and real-time light manipulation,fueling both fundamental research and practical applications.Here we provide an overview of the key working principles of LC-SLMs and review the significant progress made to date in their deployment for various applications,covering topics as diverse as beam shaping and steering,holography,optical trapping and tweezers,measurement,wavefront coding,optical vortex,and quantum optics.Finally,we conclude with an outlook on the potential opportunities and technical challenges in this rapidly developing field.展开更多
The primary mirrors of current and future large telescopes always employ a segmented mirror configuration.The small but non-negligible gaps between neighboring segments cause additional diffraction,which restricts the...The primary mirrors of current and future large telescopes always employ a segmented mirror configuration.The small but non-negligible gaps between neighboring segments cause additional diffraction,which restricts the performance of high-contrast coronagraph.To solve this problem,we propose a coronagraph system based on a single liquid crystal spatial light modulator(SLM).This spatial light modulator is used for amplitude apodization,and its feasibility and potential performance are demonstrated using a laboratory setup using the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm to control the spatial light modulator,which is based on point spread function(PSF)sensing and evaluation and optimized for maximum contrast in the discovery working area as a merit function.The system delivers a contrast in the order of 10−6,and shows excellent potential to be used in current and future large aperture telescopes,both on the ground and in space.展开更多
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 thou...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 41μm to produce the paraboloid wavefront with the peak to valley accuracy better than λ/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.展开更多
Liquid crystal spatial light modulator （LCSLM） realizing equal-intensity multiple beams often has some features, i.e., phase valley between two adjacent pixels, flybaek region when phase decreases immediately from 2...Liquid crystal spatial light modulator （LCSLM） realizing equal-intensity multiple beams often has some features, i.e., phase valley between two adjacent pixels, flybaek region when phase decreases immediately from 2~r to 0, and inevitable backplane curvature, which are different from those of most conventional diffractive optical elements （DOEs）, such as static DOEs. For optimal intensity uniformity, equal-intensity multi-beam generation must be considered for these artifacts. We present a tunable-grating method in which the intensity uniformity can be improved by considering the LCSLM artifacts. For instance, tuning phase modulation depth of the grating, called isosceles triangle multilevel phase grating （ITMPG）, can be used not only to improve the intensity uniformity, but also to fast steer four beams with narrow beamwidths, determined by the same effective aperture of ITMPG. Improved intensity uniformity and high relative diffraction efficiency are demonstrated through experiments with phase-only LCSLM.展开更多
The combined use of the photoelectric and electro-optic properties of BSO crystal (Bi 12 SiO 20 ) leads to realize spatial light modulation.Under some condition,BSO crystal can become birefringent depending on...The combined use of the photoelectric and electro-optic properties of BSO crystal (Bi 12 SiO 20 ) leads to realize spatial light modulation.Under some condition,BSO crystal can become birefringent depending on a local illuminance.The relationship between the distributions of an illuminance and a birefringence will be discussed.This spatial light modulator can work in real-time. The experiment shows,in order to increase the sensitivity of BSO crystal,an electric field of 6 kV/cm at an atmosphere pressure of 15×10 5 Pa should be applied to BSO crystal.With BSO we have measured 3-dimensional deformation by means of real-time holography.展开更多
The square soft-edge diaphragm with round angle is designed by Matlab, and is sent to a liquid crystal spatial light modulator by the computer. In order to obtain precompensation for the following laser system, local ...The square soft-edge diaphragm with round angle is designed by Matlab, and is sent to a liquid crystal spatial light modulator by the computer. In order to obtain precompensation for the following laser system, local diaphragm transmission can be adjusted by feedback signals of surface-channel charge-coupled device （SCCD）. This method can reduce the diffraction effect and realize no modulation, high stability, high homogeneity, and large scale laser beam. Several parameters of soft-edge diaphragms which affect the laser beam quality are studied systematically, and the optimized values are obtained. The method can avoid the serious modulation of hard edges and provide soft-edge diaphragms of different shapes in a fast and convenient way for the large scale laser beam system.展开更多
A new shaping method for producing nanosecond pulses with specific shape is introduced. When a Gaussian laser pulse passes through an electro-optic deflector, it. has been scanned as a line on the focal plane accordin...A new shaping method for producing nanosecond pulses with specific shape is introduced. When a Gaussian laser pulse passes through an electro-optic deflector, it. has been scanned as a line on the focal plane according to time precedence. Through controlling the intensity of transmitted light on each pixol of the liquid crystal spatial light modulator （LCSLM）, various complicated pulses can be easily produced. Using this method, various specific shaped pulses with pulse duration varying from 750 ps to 5 ns are achieved.展开更多
The phase modulation characteristics of a reflective liquid crystal （LC） spatial light modulator （SLM） under oblique incidence are studied by using our proposed self-interference method. The experimental setup of ...The phase modulation characteristics of a reflective liquid crystal （LC） spatial light modulator （SLM） under oblique incidence are studied by using our proposed self-interference method. The experimental setup of the method is very simple and has good robustness to mechanical vibrations. By changing the gray value of the combined grayscale loaded on the LC-SLM, different sheared fringe patterns, generated by the interference between the constant phase-modulated beam and the ＋1-order diffracted beam of the blazed grating, can be obtained. The amount of phase modulation of the LC-SLM is obtained by subtracting the phase of the two side lobes in the frequency domain. By turning the turntable where the SLM is mounted, the phase modulation characteristics at different incident angles can be measured. The experimental results show that the phase modulation curves do not change significantly with the small angle. When the angle is large （i.e. larger than 10°）, the phase modulation curves become different, especially for the high gray levels. With the increase of the incident angle, the phase modulation depth is reduced. The results indicate that the incident angle plays an important role in the performance of the phase modulation of an LC-SLM.展开更多
The transparent solid medium of a thermotropic liquid crystal polymer have a comb structure of mesogenic side chains which exhibit a nonlinear optical response of electronic origin.The main chain of the liquid crystal...The transparent solid medium of a thermotropic liquid crystal polymer have a comb structure of mesogenic side chains which exhibit a nonlinear optical response of electronic origin.The main chain of the liquid crystal polymers can be selected from a number of suitable polymerized monomeric and comonomeric structures such as polyvinyl,polysiloxane,polyoxyalkylene, polyester etc.The electrooptic light modulator is provided,which have potential to using in the systems of laser modulation and deflection,and information control in optical circuitry etc.展开更多
In this article,we review recently achieved Kerr effect progress in novel liquid crystal（LC） material：vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal（VADHFLC）.With an increasing applied electric fi...In this article,we review recently achieved Kerr effect progress in novel liquid crystal（LC） material：vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal（VADHFLC）.With an increasing applied electric field,the induced inplane birefringence of LCs shows quadratic nonlinearity.The theoretical calculations and experimental details are illustrated.With an enhanced Kerr constant to 130 nm/V2,this VADHFLC cell can achieve a 2π modulation by a small efficient electric field with a fast response around 100 μs and thus can be employed in both display and photonics devices.展开更多
The approaches to obtaining desired intensity or phase modulation by twisted-nematic liquid crystal display （TN-LCD） have been extensively studied based on the knowledge of the LCD＇s internal structure parameters. ...The approaches to obtaining desired intensity or phase modulation by twisted-nematic liquid crystal display （TN-LCD） have been extensively studied based on the knowledge of the LCD＇s internal structure parameters. Generally, the TN-LCD placed between two linear polarizers （P） produces coupled intensity and phase modulation. To obtain the commonly used phase-only modulation, quarter wave plates （QWPs） are often used in front of and/or behind the LCD. Here we present a method to optimize the optical modulation properties of the TN-LCD to obtain phase-only modulation in the configuration of P-QWP-LCD-QWP-P each with proper orientation. Our method is based on the macroscopical Jones matrix descriptions for the LCD, the QWPs, and the linear polarizers. Through Jones matrix calculations, the orientations of the polarizers and QWPs can be optimized to satisfy differently desired modulation demands. In contrast to the traditional method, which requires knowledge of the LCD＇s internal structure parameters, our method simplified the complicated theory analysis and can work in the absence of information on the LCD＇s internal structure parameters, which are usually not available for the commercial products.展开更多
Smart beams play a vital role in modern intelligent vehicles and have recently attracted significant attention.A spatial light modulator with high optical efficiency,low cost,and compact size is crucial for designing ...Smart beams play a vital role in modern intelligent vehicles and have recently attracted significant attention.A spatial light modulator with high optical efficiency,low cost,and compact size is crucial for designing smart beams.Here,we mix cholesteric liquid crystals with dichroic black dye and a monomer.After UV polymerization,the sample exhibits a low driving voltage of 26 V,a high transmittance of over 70%,and an On-off ratio over 280,thanks to the joint contribution of both the absorption and the scattering effect.A smart beam device is demonstrated by electrically addressing the dye-doped and polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal with pixelated electrodes.Light patterns with arbitrary designs are projected dynamically.The switching time reaches several tens of milliseconds.This strategy brings new designs to intelligent vehicles and may also inspire applications in public information displays,advertising,and even AR/VR displays.展开更多
基金supports from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.62235009).
文摘Spatial light modulators,as dynamic flat-panel optical devices,have witnessed rapid development over the past two decades,concomitant with the advancements in micro-and opto-electronic integration technology.In particular,liquid-crystal spatial light modulator(LC-SLM)technologies have been regarded as versatile tools for generating arbitrary optical fields and tailoring all degrees of freedom beyond just phase and amplitude.These devices have gained significant interest in the nascent field of structured light in space and time,facilitated by their ease of use and real-time light manipulation,fueling both fundamental research and practical applications.Here we provide an overview of the key working principles of LC-SLMs and review the significant progress made to date in their deployment for various applications,covering topics as diverse as beam shaping and steering,holography,optical trapping and tweezers,measurement,wavefront coding,optical vortex,and quantum optics.Finally,we conclude with an outlook on the potential opportunities and technical challenges in this rapidly developing field.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2031210 and 11827804)Science Research from the China Manned Space Project (CMS-CSST-2021-A11 and CMS-CSST-2021-B04).
文摘The primary mirrors of current and future large telescopes always employ a segmented mirror configuration.The small but non-negligible gaps between neighboring segments cause additional diffraction,which restricts the performance of high-contrast coronagraph.To solve this problem,we propose a coronagraph system based on a single liquid crystal spatial light modulator(SLM).This spatial light modulator is used for amplitude apodization,and its feasibility and potential performance are demonstrated using a laboratory setup using the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm to control the spatial light modulator,which is based on point spread function(PSF)sensing and evaluation and optimized for maximum contrast in the discovery working area as a merit function.The system delivers a contrast in the order of 10−6,and shows excellent potential to be used in current and future large aperture telescopes,both on the ground and in space.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Nos 60578035, 50473040） and the Science Foundation of Jilin Province （Nos 20050520, 20050321-2）.
文摘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 41μm to produce the paraboloid wavefront with the peak to valley accuracy better than λ/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.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60878048)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 20080440898)
文摘Liquid crystal spatial light modulator （LCSLM） realizing equal-intensity multiple beams often has some features, i.e., phase valley between two adjacent pixels, flybaek region when phase decreases immediately from 2~r to 0, and inevitable backplane curvature, which are different from those of most conventional diffractive optical elements （DOEs）, such as static DOEs. For optimal intensity uniformity, equal-intensity multi-beam generation must be considered for these artifacts. We present a tunable-grating method in which the intensity uniformity can be improved by considering the LCSLM artifacts. For instance, tuning phase modulation depth of the grating, called isosceles triangle multilevel phase grating （ITMPG）, can be used not only to improve the intensity uniformity, but also to fast steer four beams with narrow beamwidths, determined by the same effective aperture of ITMPG. Improved intensity uniformity and high relative diffraction efficiency are demonstrated through experiments with phase-only LCSLM.
文摘The liquid crystal television spatial light modulator (LCTVSLM) characterized is usable in optical processing applications,e.g.,optical pattern recognition,associative memory, optical computing,correlation detection and optical data processing systems.The array performance and real-time optical correlation applications are reviewed.
文摘The combined use of the photoelectric and electro-optic properties of BSO crystal (Bi 12 SiO 20 ) leads to realize spatial light modulation.Under some condition,BSO crystal can become birefringent depending on a local illuminance.The relationship between the distributions of an illuminance and a birefringence will be discussed.This spatial light modulator can work in real-time. The experiment shows,in order to increase the sensitivity of BSO crystal,an electric field of 6 kV/cm at an atmosphere pressure of 15×10 5 Pa should be applied to BSO crystal.With BSO we have measured 3-dimensional deformation by means of real-time holography.
基金supported by the National"863"Program of China under Grant Nos.2007AA03Z448 and 2008AA031901.
文摘The square soft-edge diaphragm with round angle is designed by Matlab, and is sent to a liquid crystal spatial light modulator by the computer. In order to obtain precompensation for the following laser system, local diaphragm transmission can be adjusted by feedback signals of surface-channel charge-coupled device （SCCD）. This method can reduce the diffraction effect and realize no modulation, high stability, high homogeneity, and large scale laser beam. Several parameters of soft-edge diaphragms which affect the laser beam quality are studied systematically, and the optimized values are obtained. The method can avoid the serious modulation of hard edges and provide soft-edge diaphragms of different shapes in a fast and convenient way for the large scale laser beam system.
文摘A new shaping method for producing nanosecond pulses with specific shape is introduced. When a Gaussian laser pulse passes through an electro-optic deflector, it. has been scanned as a line on the focal plane according to time precedence. Through controlling the intensity of transmitted light on each pixol of the liquid crystal spatial light modulator （LCSLM）, various complicated pulses can be easily produced. Using this method, various specific shaped pulses with pulse duration varying from 750 ps to 5 ns are achieved.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51705404)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2016M602806)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.xjj2017093)
文摘The phase modulation characteristics of a reflective liquid crystal （LC） spatial light modulator （SLM） under oblique incidence are studied by using our proposed self-interference method. The experimental setup of the method is very simple and has good robustness to mechanical vibrations. By changing the gray value of the combined grayscale loaded on the LC-SLM, different sheared fringe patterns, generated by the interference between the constant phase-modulated beam and the ＋1-order diffracted beam of the blazed grating, can be obtained. The amount of phase modulation of the LC-SLM is obtained by subtracting the phase of the two side lobes in the frequency domain. By turning the turntable where the SLM is mounted, the phase modulation characteristics at different incident angles can be measured. The experimental results show that the phase modulation curves do not change significantly with the small angle. When the angle is large （i.e. larger than 10°）, the phase modulation curves become different, especially for the high gray levels. With the increase of the incident angle, the phase modulation depth is reduced. The results indicate that the incident angle plays an important role in the performance of the phase modulation of an LC-SLM.
文摘The transparent solid medium of a thermotropic liquid crystal polymer have a comb structure of mesogenic side chains which exhibit a nonlinear optical response of electronic origin.The main chain of the liquid crystal polymers can be selected from a number of suitable polymerized monomeric and comonomeric structures such as polyvinyl,polysiloxane,polyoxyalkylene, polyester etc.The electrooptic light modulator is provided,which have potential to using in the systems of laser modulation and deflection,and information control in optical circuitry etc.
基金The funding for the State Key Laboratory on Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies
文摘In this article,we review recently achieved Kerr effect progress in novel liquid crystal（LC） material：vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal（VADHFLC）.With an increasing applied electric field,the induced inplane birefringence of LCs shows quadratic nonlinearity.The theoretical calculations and experimental details are illustrated.With an enhanced Kerr constant to 130 nm/V2,this VADHFLC cell can achieve a 2π modulation by a small efficient electric field with a fast response around 100 μs and thus can be employed in both display and photonics devices.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 10874240 and 60678023)the Shanxi Province 13115 Science and Technology Innovative Project (No. 2008ZDKG-68)
文摘The approaches to obtaining desired intensity or phase modulation by twisted-nematic liquid crystal display （TN-LCD） have been extensively studied based on the knowledge of the LCD＇s internal structure parameters. Generally, the TN-LCD placed between two linear polarizers （P） produces coupled intensity and phase modulation. To obtain the commonly used phase-only modulation, quarter wave plates （QWPs） are often used in front of and/or behind the LCD. Here we present a method to optimize the optical modulation properties of the TN-LCD to obtain phase-only modulation in the configuration of P-QWP-LCD-QWP-P each with proper orientation. Our method is based on the macroscopical Jones matrix descriptions for the LCD, the QWPs, and the linear polarizers. Through Jones matrix calculations, the orientations of the polarizers and QWPs can be optimized to satisfy differently desired modulation demands. In contrast to the traditional method, which requires knowledge of the LCD＇s internal structure parameters, our method simplified the complicated theory analysis and can work in the absence of information on the LCD＇s internal structure parameters, which are usually not available for the commercial products.
基金This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2022YFA1203703)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)(No.62035008)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.021314380233).
文摘Smart beams play a vital role in modern intelligent vehicles and have recently attracted significant attention.A spatial light modulator with high optical efficiency,low cost,and compact size is crucial for designing smart beams.Here,we mix cholesteric liquid crystals with dichroic black dye and a monomer.After UV polymerization,the sample exhibits a low driving voltage of 26 V,a high transmittance of over 70%,and an On-off ratio over 280,thanks to the joint contribution of both the absorption and the scattering effect.A smart beam device is demonstrated by electrically addressing the dye-doped and polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal with pixelated electrodes.Light patterns with arbitrary designs are projected dynamically.The switching time reaches several tens of milliseconds.This strategy brings new designs to intelligent vehicles and may also inspire applications in public information displays,advertising,and even AR/VR displays.
