High-speed and high-contrast operation of ferroelectric liquid crystal optically addressed spatial light modulators

The contrast and resolution of contemporary ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) optically addressed spatial light modulators (OASLM) were measured in time-average and instantaneous modes while the devices were cycled at multikilohertz rates. The inherent, full cycle, write/read/erase response time was 270 μs. The time-average contrast peaked at 54:1 at 3.5 kHz when a 9 lp/mm resolution was used for evaluation. Instantaneous resolutions of 57 and 32 p/mm were obtained when the FLC-OASLM was operated at repetition rates of 900 and 2700 Hz, respectively.