Flicker reduction in an LCoS spatial light modulator

J. García-Márquez; E. López-Padilla; A. González-Vega; E. Noé-Arias

doi:10.1117/12.903285

25 October 2011 Flicker reduction in an LCoS spatial light modulator

J. García-Márquez, E. López-Padilla, A. González-Vega, E. Noé-Arias

Proceedings Volume 8011, 22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World; 80112S (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.903285
Event: International Commission for Optics (ICO 22), 2011, Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

The spatial light modulators based on liquid crystal (LC-SLMs) have found applications in areas like beam shaping, optical tweezers, and microscopy. The use of these devices for pupil engineering has been an active research field. Many experiments with LC-SLMs involve the use of a digital camera, or even an additional LC modulator. Discrepancies in the refreshing rates of the modulator and the camera, or even between two nominally equal modulators, give rise to beating and intensity fluctuations, known as flicker, in the point spread function generated by the engineered pupil. In this paper we present a method for reducing the flicker caused by a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) SLM. It consists in reducing the temperature of the LCoS in a controlled form, in order to increase the viscosity of the liquid crystal, and with this reduce the amplitude of the intensity fluctuations due to the refreshing mechanism. We demonstrate that the flicker has been reduced to only the 25% of its initial value, when the LCoS is brought at 0 °C at a given gray level. Additionally, we found that the proposed reduction of temperature does not affect the dynamical range of phase control.

Citation Download Citation

J. García-Márquez, E. López-Padilla, A. González-Vega, and E. Noé-Arias "Flicker reduction in an LCoS spatial light modulator", Proc. SPIE 8011, 22nd Congress of the International Commission for Optics: Light for the Development of the World, 80112S (25 October 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.903285

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