Optically addressed modulator for tunable spatial polarization control

Frederik Schaal, Michael Rutloh, Susanne Weidenfeld, Joachim Stumpe, Peter Michler, Christof Pruss, Wolfgang Osten
2020
We present an optically addressed non-pixelated spatial light modulator. The system is based on reversible photoalignment of a LC cell using a red light sensitive novel azobenzene photoalignment layer. It is an electrode-free device that manipulates the liquid crystal orientation and consequently the polarization via light without artifacts caused by electrodes. The capability to miniaturize the spatial light modulator allows the integration into a microscope objective. This includes a
more » ... zed 200 channel optical addressing system based on a VCSEL array and hybrid refractive-diffractive beam shapers. As an application example, the utilization as a microscope objective integrated analog phase contrast modulator is shown. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
doi:10.25932/publishup-44626 fatcat:emx7q4bbbfgzjnao5bvxl3dpky