Phase characteristics of reflecting and transmitting type twisted nematic spatial light modulators

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phase properties of reflecting and transmitting twisted nematic liquid crystal SLMs, optimizing parameters and assessing aberration capabilities through interferometry and Shack Hartmann measurements.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of phase characteristics and optimization techniques for twisted nematic SLMs, including nonlinearity reduction and aberration testing methods.

Findings

Optimized device parameters like contrast and brightness.

Reduced phase nonlinearity using higher order polynomial interpolation.

Measured aberration production capability via Shack Hartmann Sensor.

Abstract

The phase characteristics of reflecting and transmitting type twisted nematic liquid crystal based Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) were measured using interferometry. Device parameters like contrast, brightness, input and output polarizer angles have been optimized and SLM phase nonlinearity was reduced by higher order polynomial interpolation. Higher order aberration production ability of SLMs was tested by measuring the shift in the spots of a Shack Hartmann Sensor.