ABSTRACT

Spatial light modulator (SLM) technology has made tremendous progress in the past few years. Thus, device technologies such as active matrix-driven liquid crystal devices (LCDs) and ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) devices as well as micro-mirror SLMs, regarded as exotic novelties less than two decades ago, are now commercially available and constitute a significant share of the display market. This chapter describes the main types of SLM currently available or those in an advanced development stage. It presents short summaries of the "older" SLM technologies, including solid state electro-optic, magneto-optic as well as acousto-optic and photorefractive devices. The chapter also presents the novel SLM concepts including electro-holograms and photonic band-gap (PBG) materials. It provides the main SLM applications including displays, optical communication, optical data processing, programmable diffractive optical elements, adaptive optics and wavelength image converters. Finally, the chapter illustrates some of the fundamental limits as well as the future trends of this technology.