Liquid crystal over silicon device characteristics for holographic projection of high-definition television images.

We discuss some fundamental characteristics of a phase-modulating device suitable to holographically project a monochrome video frame with 1280 x 720 resolution. The phase-modulating device is expected to be a liquid crystal over silicon chip with silicon area similar to that of commercial devices. Its basic characteristics, such as number of pixels, bits per pixel, and pixel dimensions, are optimized in terms of image quality and optical efficiency. Estimates of the image quality are made from the noise levels and contrast, while efficiency is calculated by considering the beam apodization, device dead space, diffraction losses, and the sinc envelope.

Non-display applications and the next generation of liquid crystal over silicon technology.

The next generation of applications for liquid crystal (LC) over silicon technology will be non-display oriented systems such as adaptive optical interconnects, optical switches and optical image processors. These new non-display applications have a different set of material parameters, which means that existing display-based materials are not entirely optimal. This is particularly the case when the application is driven by phase modulation at high frame rates (more than 1 kHz). An example of such a non-display application is in adaptive optical interconnects. Optical data transmission between printed circuit boards is becoming more and more important as the data rate in electronic systems increases into the gigahertz region. One way of avoiding the data bottlenecks in board to board interconnects is to use optical links to transmit the data. Recent research into free-space optical links has shown that a high level of manufacturing tolerance must be used to maintain the link. However, one way of avoiding these limitations is to use a reconfigurable LC phase hologram as a beam-steering element to compensate for movement between the boards and maintain the optical data path.

Dynamic holography for optical interconnections. I. Noise floor of low-cross-talk holographic switches.

Reconfigurable optical interconnects constructed by recording dynamic holograms onto spatial light modulators may be crucial elements in all-optical networks. The extremely low cross-talk level of such free-space holographic switches was shown by an analytic approximation and verified experimentally. The fiber-to-fiber switch utilizes the spatial filtering properties of single-mode fibers, and its cross-talk noise is limited to the sidelobe power as a result of diffraction of the clipped Gaussian beam at the hologram aperture edges, provided that all higher orders are avoided. Greater than 45-dB cross-talk isolation has been measured at transverse-axis locations, and locating a fiber port at off-transverse-axis directions promises to double this level if aberrations are negligible.

Dynamic holography for optical interconnections. II. Routing holograms with predictable location and intensity of each diffraction order.

An analysis of dynamic phase-only holograms, described by fractional notation and recorded onto a pixelated spatial light modulator (SLM) in a reconfigurable optical beam-steering switch, is presented. The phase quantization and arrangement of the phase states and the SLM pixelation and dead-space effects are decoupled, expressed analytically, and simulated numerically. The phase analysis with a skip-rotate rule reveals the location and intensity of each diffraction order at the digital replay stage. The optical reconstruction of the holograms recorded onto SLM's with rectangular pixel apertures entails sinc-squared scaling, which further reduces the intensity of each diffraction order. With these two factors taken into account, the highest values of the nonuniform first-order diffraction efficiencies are expected to be 33%, 66%, and 77% for two-, four-, and and eight-level one-dimensional holograms with a 90% linear pixel fill factor. The variation of the first-order diffraction efficiency and the relative replay intensities were verified to within 1 dB by performing the optical reconstruction of binary phase-only holograms recorded onto a ferroelectric liquid crystal on a silicon SLM.

Digital-to-analog image conversion with an optically addressed spatial light modulator.

The possibility of using ferroelectric liquid-crystal optically addressed spatial light modulators to transfer images from silicon backplane devices is investigated. We propose a drive scheme for optically addressed spatial light modulators to perform digital-to-analog image conversion based on the speed performances of current and future silicon backplane devices and on temporal averaging. The validity of the drive scheme is experimentally demonstrated with a LED used to encode the gray levels, and we discuss the performance of the display system.

Resonant enhancement of low-contrast electro-optic effects.

Ferroelectric liquid crystals can be optimized for speed, but such materials tend to have small switching angles and consequently low contrast in the smectic A(*) phase. We describe a method whereby such a low-contrast but fast-switching effect can be enhanced, in theory giving the same contrast as a material with a switching angle of 22.5 degrees . This method therefore promises liquid-crystal modulators of high contrast and with speeds of the order of hundreds of nanoseconds. The theoretical basis of this method and initial results that support this analysis are presented.

Dynamic holographic interconnects that use ferroelectric liquid-crystal spatial light modulators.

Dynamic interconnect holograms are designed by the use of a simulated annealing algorithm and written to a 128 × 128 pixel ferroelectric spatial light modulator that is used in a binary-phase mode. Dynamic holograms are used to implement a 2 × 2 crossbar with single-mode fiber inputs and outputs, which function with as high as 27 dB of isolation between output ports. The principle is extended to two-dimensional interconnection holograms, and arbitrary fan-out to as high as 64 points is demonstrated with good performance.

Images of interconnection holograms are transferred from the spatial light modulator to an optically addressed spatial light modulator that is used in a binary-phase mode. The addition of a fixed array generator computer-generated hologram permits replication of the hologram image, thus creating a larger hologram with a high space-bandwidth product on the optically addressed spatial light modulator.

Results of a preliminary experiment are presented.

Bistability and nonlinearity in optically addressed ferroelectric liquid-crystal spatial light modulators: applications to neurocomputing.

We report the characteristics of a truly bistable optically addressed ferroelectric liquid-crystal spatial light modulator that is capable of storing binary images. We show that, in addition to this bistability, a nonlinear response and gray scales can be observed under certain operating conditions. We then report on how these capabilities can be used in implementing optical neurocomputing architectures.

Evolutionary development of advanced liquid crystal spatial light modulators.

Taking into account recent developments and present trends in devices and component technologies, the future development of electrically addressed liquid crystal spatial light modulators is considered. In particular, the combination of single-crystal-silicon active backplane and chiral smectic C liquid crystal technologies is shown to be promising. The ultimate limitations of such technologies for producing faster devices of higher complexity and functionality are assessed, and an advanced device, presently under development, is described.