Characteristics of a 128??×??128 liquid-crystal spatial light modulator for wave-front generation

Abstract
Recently liquid-crystal spatial light modulators (LC SLM's) have been receiving much attention in vari- ous disciplines including adaptive optics (AO).1 It has been demonstrated that LC SLM's can provide a conve- nient and effective means of amplitude or phase modu- lation or both. They have the advantages of low cost, high reliability, compactness, low power requirements, ease of controllability, and a potentially large number of correcting elements. Disadvantages of LC SLM's are that they have slow response times and generally require polarized light. Sixty-nine-element2 and one hundred twenty-seven-element3 LC SLM's, specif i- cally designed for wave-front control, have been used to demonstrate the potential for AO applications. Dy- namic performance of one of the 69-element devices was also investigated.4 It is expected that a LC SLM will be a good replacement for the deformable mirror