P‐11.4: Concept of Electronic Controlling the Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Shutter at Unequal Durations of its Open and Closed States

Abstract

Fast transient times of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) modulators (shutters) provide accurate selection of pulse light fluxes, for example, the active selection of view images in the stereoscopic applications. The problem of the electronic control of the FLC shutter appears in the case of unequal durations of its alternating open and closed optical states. Corresponding unequal portions of control electrical power during positive and negative polarities of the control voltage cause the degradation of the FLC performance. Main reason of the degradation is the inequality of the volume ion charges induced into the FLC layer by positive and negative control voltage. In this paper, the concept of solution to this problem is suggested with the corresponding experimental verification. Our method allows to equalize the positive and negative control electrical power values without affecting the optical response of the FLC shutter by introducing the short time gaps into a longer control voltage waveform to lower the corresponding integral electrical power value.