Lensless Vanderlugt optical correlator using two phase-only spatial light modulators

A new holography display technology based on a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) is proposed. The normal use of laser diode (LD) light source led to the inevitable speckle noise introduced by the coherence of the laser beam. Algorithms and special diffractive optical elements have been proposed to reduce the speckle noise. In this paper, a selected light-emitted diode (LED) light source was used in the holographic display system to replace the LD light source. The temporal coherence and spatial coherence of the LED were studied. Though the temporal coherence of LED is short, the spatial coherence of the light field can be improved by optimizing the optical paths such as decreasing the emitting area of the light source and so on. A high-power LED with a narrow band-width was selected. An algorithm to generate computer-generated hologram for the SLM was proposed. The phase-only holograms for the display were computed using the coherent light algorithm. Then the phase holograms were uploaded to the SLM. LED was used as the light source to illuminate the SLM uniformly, and the reconstructions can be observed by naked eye. It is demonstrated that LED is an acceptable light source for holographic display. The reconstruction results showed that the speckle noise and multiple reflections were eliminated when LED was used as the light source.

Phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) has been widely used for accurate phase-manipulation in holographic display, optical tweezers, lithography, etc. Due to the nonlinear optical response of liquid crystal and manufacturing defects, the grayscale-phase response could be different for every single SLM device. The calibration for phase modulation is needed for improving the performance of the SLM involved system. The principles of phase-only SLM are reviewed. The main phase calibration methods for SLM are discussed and compared.

Many advancements in the fields of holographic displays, image projection, and structured illumination rely on phase-only spatial light modulators (SLMs) to generate light fields with high dynamic range and little light loss. However, commonly used Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) SLMs are typically slow (<120Hz), while SLMs which can be modulated faster tend to have limited diffraction efficiency or binary bit depth. Recently, a new class of MEMS devices, Phase Light Modulators (PLMs), have shown promise for fast (>5 kHz) holographic illumination and display technologies. However, their bit depth is still limited to four-to-five bits, causing many light field modulation and optimization methods, such as Gerchberg-Saxton phase retrieval, to produce poor-quality results. In this contribution, we introduce an iterative modulation algorithm which combines a four-phase PLM level averaging method with Gerchberg-Saxton phase retrieval to enable complex field modulation while simultaneously improving the bit depth of the modulator, the PSNR of projected images, and contrast of projected images.

Diffractive optical element (DOE) design techniques can be applied to the generation of pattern recognition filters for optical correlators, in which case the spatial light modulator (SLM) in the filler plane is thought of as a real-time DOE. The designer must first select the desired complex pattern recognition filter and then apply DOE design techniques to map the fully complex function onto the limited dynamic range SLM. To illustrate the procedure, we apply the techniques to the problem of implementing a matched filter with limited dynamic range Fourier plane SLM’s. We use computer simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of the technique. We quantify the performance by measuring the mean squared error between the ideal matched output and output from quantized filters. Numerical simulations indicate that the DOE method yields a significant improvement over direct quantization. The improvement in mean squared error comes, however, at the expense of light efficiency. The DOE technique has been applied to design of matched filters with binary phase, ternary phase, and phase-only SLM’s for coherent as well as incoherent optical correlators. The additional phase freedom in the incoherent design results in improved performance, but incoherent systems are limited to correlation with real positive reference scenes. A proof-of-principle laboratory experiment has been constructed to complement the numerical simulations.

A spatial light modulator (SLM) is a key element in several applications, but it is subject to surface deformation due to manufacturing imperfections or environmental factors. Therefore, the current study aims to analyze and compensate for such deformations in a phase-only SLM using a Michelson interferometer. The recorded interferogram represents the interference between the wavefront reflected from the SLM surface (object wave) and a reference wave. Noise in the recorded interferogram can degrade the accuracy of phase measurements. Various digital filtering techniques were applied to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the interferogram. The filtered interferogram enabled accurate phase extraction through Fourier transform processing and side peak selection using a spatial carrier frequency method. Additionally, phase errors caused by the tilt of the reference beam were corrected. Thereafter, the conjugate of the corrected phase distribution was used to calculate a phase-only computer-generated hologram (CGH), which was displayed on the SLM to compensate for surface deformations. The effectiveness of the proposed compensation procedure was confirmed by a second phase measurement, which demonstrated improved SLM performance. This study highlights the impact of combining the interferometric techniques with digital processing for precise surface deformation analysis.

Holographic display system that uses six phase-only spatial light modulators (SLMs) performs holographic reconstructions from the phase-hologram of a point cloud that is extracted from 3D object. The SLMs are tiled as a three by two matrix on a virtual planar surface. The alignment is successful and the display system generates large holographic reconstructions. The proposed system can be used either to obtain reconstructions of large objects with a narrow field of view or reconstructions of smaller objects with a broader field of view. Therefore, since field of view is broader for smaller objects, observer has the flexibility to move around the reconstruction within a larger angle. This flexibility increases the motion parallax and as a consequence it increases the quality of 3D perception. Results show that even with three SLMs in horizontal direction the 3D perception is significantly increased. Experimental results are satisfactory.

For their capacity to shape optical wavefronts in real time into any desired illumination pattern, phase-only Spatial Light Modulators (SLM) have proven to be powerful tools for optical trapping and micromanipulation applications. SLMs are also becoming increasingly utilized in selective photo-stimulation of groups of neurons in the brain. However, conventional SLM based wavefront modulation introduces artifacts that are particularly detrimental for photo-stimulation applications. The primary issue is the unmodulated light that travels along the 0th order of diffraction. This portion of light is commonly blocked at the center of the object plane, which prevents photo-stimulation in the blocked region. We demonstrate a virtual lens configuration that moves the 1st order diffraction with the desired illumination pattern into the Fourier plane of the 0th order light. This virtual lens setup makes the whole field of view accessible for photo-stimulation and eliminates the need for removing the 0th order light in two-photon applications. Furthermore, in an example application to reconstruct a pattern consisting of an array of points, the virtual lens configuration increases the uniformity of the intensities these points. Moreover, diffraction-induced artifacts are also significantly reduced within the target plane. Therefore, our proposed high fidelity configuration yields target points with high signal to noise ratio.

Three-dimensional light sculpting using a geometric analysis

In this paper, we have implemented a 3D content generation simulator based on integration of phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) and LabVIEW software to develop a holographic stereogram printer that consists of a coherent laser, a spatial light modulator and X-Y translation stage with stepper motors. This content generation platform provides encoding of directional information extracted from rendered perspective images of real or virtual 3D object. There are mainly three parts related to the implementation for holographic stereogram printer. In the first part, “Digital content generation” phaseonly SLM will be applied to the holographic printer system by loading series of perspective 2D images for each holographic elements (hogel). Regarding this part, phase-only SLM can be converted into an amplitude modulator by adjusting the angles of the polarizer. The second part is “Control system” made in LabVIEW based platform for automatic recording of the holographic stereograms which is synthesized from previous part. The third implementation part is “Optical system” for printing of parallax-related hogels on the holographic plate. To check the performance of the developed approach, numerical simulations and optical experiments are implemented. The hogel images are sequentially exposed using the perspective images to form the whole holographic stereogram on the holographic light sensitive material.

The wavefront printer is an equipment to produce computer-generated holograms (CGH) as a volume hologram. This printer records the wavefront generated by spatial light modulator (SLM). We propose a novel technique for applying phase-only SLM to the wavefront printer without losing the advantage of the wide space-band product of phase modulation. The phase-only SLM commonly has the problem of degradation of generated wavefronts because of coding noise due to phase only modulation. To reduce the noise, a technique is presented in order to partially modulate amplitude of recording light in phase-only SLM.

A speckle noise suppression method in digital holography is proposed by the angular diversity with a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM). The minimal angular difference of illumination beams is quantitatively analyzed to ensure the noncorrelation of any two speckle patterns, and then the phase-only SLM is employed to generate a series of tilted illumination beams. Comparing with the typical methods, the tilted illumination beams are controlled dynamically and accurately, which makes it possible to record a large number of holograms. Finally, using an image-plane digital holographic system, 117 holograms are recorded respectively, and the synthesized reconstructed images are obtained with the greatly suppressed speckle noise which is in good agreement with the theoretical results. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness, repeatability, and practicability of the proposed approach.

The rarely considered case of laser beam propagation and focusaing through the moderately scattering medium was researched. A phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) with 1920×1080 pixel resolution was used to increase the efficiency of focusing of laser radiation propagated through the 5 mm layer of the scattering suspension of 1 µm polystyrene microbeads in distilled water with the concentration values ranging from 105 to 106 mm−3. A CCD camera with micro-objective was used to estimate the intensity distribution of the far-field focal spot. A Shack-Hartmann sensor was used to measure wavefront distortions. The conducted experimental research demonstrated the 8% increase in integral intensity and 16% decrease in diameter of the far-field focal spot due to the use of the SLM for laser beam focusing.

Relative limitations of increasing the number of modulation levels in computer generated holography

A method for holographic femtosecond laser parallel processing is proposed, which can suppress the interference of zero-order light effectively and improve the energy utilization rate. In order to blaze the target pattern to the peak position of zero-order interference, a phase-only hologram containing a digital blazed grating is designed and generated, and the energy of the target pattern can be increased by 3.793 times in theory. In addition, by subsequently increasing the phase of the divergent spherical wave, the focal plane of the target pattern and the plane of the multiorder diffraction beam resulting from the pixelated structure of the spatial light modulator (SLM) can be separated. Both a high-pass filter and aperture are used to simultaneously eliminate the influences of zero-order light and multiorder interferential patterns. A system based on the phase-only SLM (with resolution of 1920×1080) is set up to validate the proposed method. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can achieve high-quality holographic femtosecond laser parallel processing with a significantly improved energy utilization rate.

Phase-coded speckle illumination for laser Fourier ptychographic microscopy