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Polarization-independent phase modulation using a blue-phase liquid crystal over silicon device.


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Authors

Hyman, Rachel M 
Lorenz, Alexander 
Morris, Stephen M 
Wilkinson, Timothy D 

Abstract

Liquid crystal over silicon (LCoS) spatial light modulator technology has become dominant in industries such as pico-projection, which require high-quality reflective microdisplays for intensity modulation of light. They are, however, restricted from being used in wider optical applications, such as computer-generated holography, adaptive optics, and optical correlation, due to their phase modulation ability. The main drawback of these devices is that their modulation is based on simple planar or twisted nematic liquid crystals, which are inherently slow mechanisms due to their viscoelastic properties. Their use is also limited due to fact that the phase modulation is dependent on the state of polarization of the illumination. In this paper, we demonstrate that a polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystal can offer both phase modulation and high speed switching in a silicon backplane device which is independent of the input polarization state. The LCoS device shows continuous phase modulation of light with a submillisecond switching time and insensitivity to the input light polarization direction. This type of phase modulation opens up a whole new class of applications for LCoS technology.

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Keywords

0912 Materials Engineering, 0205 Optical Physics, Bioengineering

Journal Title

Appl Opt

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1559-128X
1539-4522

Volume Title

53

Publisher

The Optical Society
Sponsorship
RMH would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Dr. Richard Norman Scholarship fund. AL would like to acknowledge support from the German Research Foundation, (grant 1922/1-1). We would also like to acknowledge Dr. F. Castles for his help in identifying and stabilizing the blue phase.