Here we introduce a new class of spatial light modula-tor that provides both 2D pixel geometry and high speed. The device operates by encoding spatial information in frequency bins via a broadband optical phase modulator, and decoding them via a first-of-its-kind . Liquid crystals are birefringent, so applying a voltage to the cell changes the effective refractive index seen by the incident wave, and thus the phase retardation of the reflected wave. A spatial light modulator (SLM) is a device that can control the intensity, phase, or polarization of light in. The spatial light modulators developed at Fraunhofer IPMS consist of arrays of micromirrors on semiconductor chips, with the number of mirrors varying from a few hundred to several million depending on the application. In most cases, this requires a highly integrated application-specific integrated. Thorlabs' Exulus® Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) employ Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) technology to produce high-resolution, high-speed reflective phase modulation with individually addressable pixels.
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