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What is LCOS-SLM?
Principle and structure
An LCOS-SLM (Liquid Crystal On Silicon – Spatial Light Modulator) consists of a head and a controller. The head has an address section where laser light enters and the controller connects to a PC via a DVI (digital video interface).
The LCOS chip mounted in the address section performs wavefront control and has a structure consisting of a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between a CMOS chip with pixel electrodes arranged in two dimensions and a transparent electrode deposited on a glass substrate. Light incident from the glass substrate passes through the liquid crystal and is reflected by the pixel electrodes of the CMOS chip and is then again output through the liquid crystal. When voltage is applied to the pixel electrodes, the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules varies according to the voltage, so the refractive index changes. This allows controlling the phase of the light.
The controller controls the voltage applied to the pixel electrodes.
The controller also converts digital image data sent from the connected PC into control signals and outputs these signals to the head. These signals control the voltage to each pixel electrode of the LCOS chip mounted in the address section. In this way, the phase distribution of the output light, or in other words, the wavefront of light can be controlled.
Unlike optical mirrors and lenses, LCOS-SLM can dynamically control a laser beam using a PC, allowing free control of the beam pattern and irradiation position.
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