Liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) has a series of attractive characteristics as a wave-front corrector of adaptive optical system such as compactness, high density integration, low cost and possibility of batch production. However, it also has some limitations such as effective only on polarized light, chromatic aberration and low response speed and limited phase stroke. In order to investigate these pros and cons in detail, a series of experiments and analyses have been conducted using a LC-SLM Model P256 of Boulder Nonlinear System. The nonlinear phase response to applied voltage was measured for ¹different wavelengths. The coupling between neighboring elements and response time were also measured. The error of phase wrapping for multi-wavelength wave-front of broad spectral band light was studied. The fitting capability to Zernike polynomials was demonstrated. An adaptive optical system with this LC-SLM and Shack-Hartmann sensor was close-looped. As a result, the applicability of LC-SLM for different applications will be evaluated and discussed.

Date Published: 12 February 2007
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6457, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies XIX and Atmospheric Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves, 64570P (12 February 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.698974

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6457:
Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies XIX and Atmospheric Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves
Steve Mecherle; Olga Korotkova, Editor(s)