Phase modulation time dynamics of the liquid-crystal spatial light modulator

In this paper, liquid-crystal spatial light modulators are presented for precise dynamic manipulation of coherent light fields in space, which are used in diffractive optoelectronic and optical data processing systems. In addition, this paper presents the results of the temporal dynamics study of the HoloEye PLUTO‑2 VIS-016 liquid-crystal spatial light modulator for light field rate modulation analysis. Experiments using binary phase computer-generated holograms and binary focusing phase diffractive optical elements are performed. The time characteristics of the modulator response are determined from the experimental data. Displaying the diffraction structure model on the screen of the spatial light modulator results in a rise time of the diffraction efficiency of 146 ms, and switching to a new model leads to a decay time of 97 ms. The obtained results allow implementing the dynamic generation of an alternating diffraction field at 2 Hz update frequency with −16 dB interference level. Increasing the frequency of updating diffraction structure models increases the level of interframe noise in the generated diffraction field, and when updating with the frequency indicated in the specification, separating the generated distributions is virtually impossible. From the presented results, the studied modulator model can be applied for high-precision formation of complex diffraction fields with a frame update rate lower than stated. Determining the actual frame rate from the rise and decay times of diffraction efficiency allows correctly determining the minimum operating time of an information optical system with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator.