A spatial light modulator (SLM) is a device that can control the intensity, phase, or polarization of light in a spatially varying manner. A simple example is an overhead projector transparency. Usually when the term SLM is used, it means that the transparency can be controlled by. 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. The ability to control the amplitude and phase of optical wavefronts has many important scientific and technological. Current wavefront shaping technologies face a fundamental dichotomy: spatial light modulators (SLMs) offer high pixel count but suffer from low refresh rates, while acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) provide moderate speed with restricted optical beam geome-tries [25, 26]. The content covers various types of SLMs, including liquid.
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