Silicon Active Backplane Spatial Light Modulators Using Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

A thin layer of fast chiral smectic liquid crystals may be placed directly over suitably designed silicon VLSI circuits in order to enable the modulation of light in response to variations in voltage. This hybrid electro-optic technology may enable a number of the key components required for parallel optical systems to be made (1). The simplest of such components are electrically addressed spatial light modulators which consist of arrays of electrically addressed shutters (1,2,3,).