Amongst many research applications, liquid crystal on Silicon spatial light modulators (LCoS SLM) are used in telecommunication applications as a beam steering device. The efficiency of the device is determined by the reflectivity of its backplane and the efficiency of the addressed phase function. While a dielectric mirror coating (DMC) helps improve the reflectivity, fringing field effects are also enhanced, leading to a decrease in diffraction efficiency. To minimize the thickness of the dielectric mirror, properly identifying the relevant parameter, which has an impact on the reflectivity of the backplane, is important. From experiment results and simulation results from the finite element method, we found the pixel shape as the relevant parameter. With the pixel shape taken into consideration, we show an example of optimized DMC.
Accurate optical modeling for design and optimization of liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulators (LCoS SLMs) is important for phase-related applications. Traditional matrix method cannot accurately predict the optical performance when the LC distribution is complex, therefore the rigorous finite element method (FEM) is preferred. However, the optical modeling of LCoS is a multidimensional problem, which is difficult to simulate with FEM. Here, we present the development of an improved FEM by combining the scattering matrix method with the domain decomposition method to reduce the computational burden for optical simulation of LCoS. Furthermore, a 2D simulation example with phase grating displayed on LCoS is presented and compared with experiment.
There are many important applications for phase-only liquid crystal on Silicon-based spatial light modulators (LCOS SLMs). Among the applications, the diffractive beam splitting, beam shaping and beam steering with LCOS SLM are finding more and more use in telecommunication applications (e.g. wavelength selective switch for ROADM, space and mode division multiplexing). However, many effects of LCOS device have to be considered if we want to get high quality output light field. For example, the ideal phase, intensity and polarization distribution in far field are usually deteriorated by the pixelated metal structure and fringing field effects. Thus, the total efficiency is decreased. By using electro-optical and electromagnetic simulation methods, we can properly incorporate the effects that influence the optical performance of LCOS and optimize the design. Furthermore we report the implementation of the high-performance high-resolution LCOS SLM for the telecommunication C- and L-band with the average insertion loss (IL) of less than 0.2 dB, achieved by the reflectivity-enhancement coating on the LCOS backplane. The experimental results on reflectivity, diffraction efficiency, crosstalk and other important parameters are compared with the theoretical predictions.
In this paper, we demonstrated an electrically tunable optical zoom system with separated focusing and zooming functions. The optical mechanism is discussed. The focusing distance and magnification of the image can be controlled separately by focusing lenses and zooming lenses. As a result, the zoom ratio is independent of objective distance and only depends on the tunable range of the lens power of the active-optical elements. This study helps designing many applications with an optical zoom function, such as cell phones, holographic projectors, pico projectors and endoscopes.
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