Small 512 x 512 Spatial Light Modulator

OverDrive Plus (ODP) for Ultra-High Speed Operation – The use of ODP has shown reductions of the liquid crystal response times by a factor of up to 8x through use of the transient nematic effect, phase wrapping, and regional calibrations. The base technology is the transient nematic effect, utilizing intermediate transition voltages beyond the target voltage needed to achieve the desired phase value. The second technology development is the use of phase wrapping, which is based on the cyclical nature of light wherein adding or subtracting 2π from any phase value in a hologram results in an equivalent hologram. Often times it is faster to switch from ϕ1 → ϕ2 ± 2π instead of switching from ϕ1 → ϕ2. ODP automatically implements the faster of the two transitions, based on the calibration data. The third technology development is the utilization of regional calibrations of an SLM. Because most optical applications require precision on the order of a fraction of a wavelength, nearly all SLMs will have some inherent phase errors across the aperture that may impact the performance of the optical system. OverDrive Plus utilizes the phase modulation capabilities of the SLM to calibrate these errors out of the reflected wave, while also utilizing the regional calibrations when determining the length of time required for the transient nematic effect on a pixel by pixel basis.