Gray-Scale Controllable Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulator

A new optically addressed spatial light modulator (OASLM) with memorized gray-scale capability has been developed, which has potential application in analog optical computing. This OASLM exploits the occurrence of a gray-scale effect in the memory state of surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) cells when the SSFLC is oriented by ultra-thin polyimide Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films.1) In the case of LB orientation films, the gray-scale can be attributed to the topography of the substrate ITO films which produces spatial fluctuation in the spontaneous polarization (multidomain).2) The OASLM has many pixels, each corresponding to the smallest unit of the multidomain gray-scale. Because it is possible to add switching devices such as thin film transistors to the pixels, the OASLM has the potential of particularly designed functions.3)