Improvement of the switching frequency of a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator with optimal cell gap.

In the application of a nematic liquid-crystal (LC) spatial light modulator, we derived the formula of retardation dynamic response of the device by solving the Erickson-Leslie equation. Then, the response time of the 2π phase change can be expressed as a function of the LC cell gap. The theoretical and experimental results all indicate that the response time of 2π first decreases and then increases with the LC cell gap increasing, and there is an optimal cell gap to obtain the shortest response time. Therefore, the method of optimizing the cell gap shows potential to improve the switching frequency for all type of nematic LC optical device with specific modulation quantity.

[1]  Q. Mu,et al.  Novel spectral range expansion method for liquid crystal adaptive optics. , 2010, Optics express.

[2]  Q. Mu,et al.  Open-loop correction of horizontal turbulence: system design and result. , 2008, Applied optics.

[3]  Shin‐Tson Wu,et al.  Cell Gap Effect on the Dynamics of Liquid Crystal Phase Modulators , 2006 .

[4]  Jun Li,et al.  High birefringence and high resistivity isothiocyanate‐based nematic liquid crystal mixtures , 2005 .

[5]  Jay E. Stockley,et al.  Advances in liquid crystal based devices for wavefront control and beamsteering , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[6]  Q. Mu,et al.  Effects of the space-bandwidth product on the liquid-crystal kinoform. , 2005, Optics express.

[7]  R. Meucci,et al.  Characterization of a nematic liquid crystal light modulator for mid-infrared applications , 2003 .

[8]  Sailing He,et al.  Simulation and comparison study of liquid crystal director distributions , 2001 .

[9]  D Dayton,et al.  On the use of dual frequency nematic material for adaptive optics systems: first results of a closed-loop experiment. , 2000, Optics express.

[10]  K. Johnson,et al.  Analog optical phase modulator based on chiral smectic and polymer cholesteric liquid crystals. , 1995, Optics letters.

[11]  Shin-Tson Wu,et al.  Small angle relaxation of highly deformed nematic liquid crystals , 1988 .

[12]  E. P. Raynes,et al.  Electro-optic response times in liquid crystals , 1972 .

[13]  J. Ericksen.  Conservation Laws for Liquid Crystals , 1961 .

[14]  F. M. Leslie.  Some constitutive equations for liquid crystals , 1968 .