Meas. Sci. Technol. 8 (1997) 764–772.

Printed in the UK PII: S0957-0233(97)76689-X

Complex modulation characterization

of liquid crystal devices by
interferometric data correlation
E Martı́n-Badosa†, A Carnicer, I Juvells and S Vallmitjana
Universitat de Barcelona, Laboratori d’Òptica, Departament de Fı́sica Aplicada i
Electrònica, Diagonal 647, E08028 Barcelona, Spain

Received 29 July 1996, in final form 1 April 1997, accepted for publication
15 April 1997

Abstract. A new phase modulation spatial light modulator (SLM) characterization

procedure is presented, based on the analysis of the interference fringes of a
Mach–Zender interferometer arrangement, by means of correlation and Fourier
transform methods. This, accompanied by an amplitude calibration technique that
makes use of the same experimental set-up, gives a general measurement
procedure for SLM full complex characterization.
As an experimental application, two different operation curves of an Epson
LCTV are determined, in order to use these configurations for an optical pattern
recognition procedure: a phase-only high-efficient joint transform correlator.

1. Introduction on high-quality optical elements. Other procedures that

The development of high performance spatial light
modulators (SLMs), which are devices that change the
properties of light (amplitude, phase or polarization), has
produced a great advance in real-time pattern recognition,
in which hybrid opto-electronic designs are employed [1, 2].
Generally, amplitude and phase modulation are
coupled, in the sense that both the amplitude and phase of
light in its way through SLMs are modified [3]. However,
it is possible to find some operation conditions in which
one of them remains mainly constant as the other one
changes considerably. These are called amplitude-mostly
(or amplitude-only) configuration and phase-mostly (phase-
only) configurations [4].
Liquid crystal televisions (LCTVs) are electronically-
addressed SLMs, where it is possible to display images
at frame rate. They are often used in their amplitude-
modulation mode, so they act as point-by-point selective
transmittance elements. Using a phase-only configuration
with high LCTV constant transmittance maximizes the
light efficiency of the optical arrangement, because light
absorption is minimum.
It is then necessary to calibrate the device performance,
both as a transmittance or amplitude modulator, or as a
phase modulator [5, 6]. A new, easy phase calibration
method, based on the fringe analysis of a Mach–Zender
interferometer, is presented. An amplitude characterization
that profits part of the same set-up is also explained. As
an interferometric technique, the experimental arrangement
has to be isolated from environmental vibrations and relies
† E-mail address: estela@optica.fae.ub.es
extract the phase measurements from optical diffraction
information have been developed in the literature [7, 8].
They present the advantage that they do not employ
interferometric set-ups. However, they suffer from being
derived from intensity measures, which are not as reliable
as relative fringe displacement determination, as in our
case. Moreover, the phase calibration method explained
in [7] depends on transmittance modulation data, so it is
not possible to separate the phase information calculation
from that of the amplitude. On the other hand, the
strategy in [8] works for phase-only operation but is
induced to errors introduced by coupled amplitude and
phase modulation. This is why we prefer our classical
interferometric approach.
A LCTV removed from a commercially available Epson
videoprojector (VP-100PS) has been characterized in this
work to show the validity of the method. The device
response has great dependence on some potentiometer
controls available on the videoprojector and on the
polarization state of light. Moreover, it changes with
ambient conditions, such as temperature, and it is not
constant all over the active area (different pixels that
compose the screen). It is then important to assure that
we can rely on the response curves obtained for the LCTV,
that is, that the knowledge of the device operation can be
useful for some kind of application.
As a consequence of the development of SLM
technology and the improvement of their performance
characteristics, a great advance in optical correlation real-
time pattern recognition set-ups has been achieved. These
techniques consist of detecting a target image in a complex

0957-0233/97/070764+09$19.50

c 1997 IOP Publishing Ltd

OUTPUT INPUT
BS2 videoprojector
CCD
pol. M2
LCTV
λ/2
M1
BS1
Figure 1. The experimental set-up for the phase measurement with a Mach–Zender interferometer.
scene by analysis of the optical correlation product between
them.
We will next prove that the LCTV characterization
results can be applied to a novel highly-efficient optical
pattern recognition design, based on a phase-only joint
transform correlator.
2. Experimental set-up
The experimental set-up used to measure the phase
modulation of the LCTV is based on a Mach–Zender
interferometer, as shown in figure 1. The collimated He–Ne
laser beam is split by the first beamsplitter. A CCD camera
registers the interference fringes of the two plane waves
when the beam joins again. The phase variation produced
when a LCTV is placed in one arm of the interferometer
is translated onto a fringe displacement on the interference
plane [9]. The λ/2 plate in the other arm compensates
the light polarization changes as it traverses the panel, so
maximum contrast interference fringes are obtained.
Both the videoprojector and the camera are connected to
a PC computer through a Matrox-PIP-1024B 8-bit digitizer
board, where it is possible to change the input SLM image
and to analyse the output fringe pattern. The possible grey-
level values in the computer are comprised between 0 and
255.
The LCTV modulation depends on the orientation of the
two polarizers, the position of some potentiometer controls
available on the videoprojector, labelled as colour, contrast
and brightness and, fundamentally, on the PC input image
grey level (gl). When all these variables but the last one
remain constant, it is interesting to study the phase and
amplitude modulation of the light traversing the device
as the input grey level changes, in order to determine
the modulation of the LCTV when a grey-level image is
displayed on it.
The method consists of the measurement of the relative
phase shift between several pairs of grey levels displayed on
the panel: half of the screen always remains with a constant
grey-level value, gl = 0, which acts as a reference (phase
Complex modulation characterization of liquid crystal devices
pol.: polarizer
BS: beamsplitter
M: mirror
LCTV: liquid
crystal
television
collimator
He-Ne LASER
pol.
modulation zero), while different values are displayed on
the other half.
3. Phase measurement method
A typical fringe pattern is shown in the middle of figure 2,
where we can see two cosinusoidal interference fringes out
of phase, the left one (l) corresponding to the reference level
(gl = 0) and the right one (r) to a grey level of 64. The
pixels of the LCTV are also visible. The whole digitized
picture has 512 rows and columns, as indicated.
Because the interference fringes are aligned in the x or
horizontal direction, it is possible to represent their vertical
profiles by the one-dimensional mathematical expressions
that follow:
Il (y) = al (y) + bl (y) cos[2πy/P + φl (y)]
Ir (y) = ar (y) + br (y) cos[2πy/P + φr (y)]
(y = 0 . . . N − 1). (1)
y is a discrete variable taking N different values, where N
is the number of rows (N = 512). P is the period of the
fringes, which is related to their frequency by
f = N/P . (2)
ai (y) (i = l, r) represent possible background non-
uniformities and bi (y) are related to the local contrast of the
patterns. Equations (1) work for each column and should
be approximately equal for all of them. In order to reduce
the non-uniformities and with the final idea of having an
average measurement, we have determined the mean value
of the digitized intensity for each row, considering the
central 128 columns (comprised between the two vertical
white lines depicted in figure 2) for both the left and
right fringes. The corresponding distributions are shown
in figures 2(a) and 2(b).
The phase shift we have to determine is given by
φ = φr (y) − φl (y) = 2π 1/P (3)
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E Martı́n-Badosa et al

Column Number
0 64 192 256 320 448 512

0 0

64 64

128 128

Row Number
Row Number

192 192

256 256

320 320

384 384

448 448

512 512
160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Digitized Value Digitized Value

(a) (b)
Figure 2. Digitized average interference distributions compared with fringe patterns: (a) gl = 0 (left), (b) gl = 64 (right).

eu mr
la of
V sn
no ra
it T
al re
er ir
ro uo
C F
de de
izl zi
a la
mr mr
o o
N N

Row Displacement Frequency

Figure 3. The correlation product between the signals in Figure 4. Fourier transform of the figure 2(a) function
figures 2(a) and 2(b). before (thinner line) and after a low-pass filtering (thicker
line).
where 1 represents the right–left fringe displacement. the two fringe patterns, which can be expressed as
One possibility is to apply Fourier transform fringe-
pattern analysis methods [10], so φr (y) and φl (y) can X−1
k=N

be determined separately and then the phase shift can be
obtained by performing the subtraction, as indicated in
equation (3). Due to the specific characteristics of the
present work measurements, it is only necessary to know
the phase difference. Consequently, it is easier to calculate
the relative fringe displacement and the fringe period and
compute φ = 2π 1/P .
3.1. Fringe displacement measurement
A simple method to determine the fringe displacement is to
perform the one-dimensional correlation product between
Crl (y 0 ) ≡ Ir ⊗ Il (y) = Ir (k)Il (k − y 0 ). (4)
k=0
This gives a measure of the similarity of the two functions
as one of them is displaced over the other. The position
of the correlation maximum corresponds to the maximum
overlapping conditions and, in the case of fringe correlation,
it directly provides the fringe displacement.
The correlation product of equation (4), normalized to
its maximum value (100), is depicted in figure 3. The exact
determination of the position of the maximum is difficult,
because of the noisy ripple present in the signal, which is
primarily due to the LCTV pixel structure visible in the
fringe patterns (figure 2).

766
 Complex modulation characterization of liquid crystal devices

In order to obtain a smoother function, the intensity

interference distributions of figures 2(a) and 2(b) are
approximated to a cosine function. We use a Fourier
transform technique in which low-pass filtering is applied
to the Fourier transform of one of the signals and, by eu
la
performing an inverse Fourier transformation, a recovered
V
smoother signal is obtained. Figure 4 shows the amplitude de
of the Fourier transform of the function in figure 2(a). The zi
ti
bold curve is the result of applying a low-pass filtering with gi
a cut-off frequency a little above the maximum. The two D
secondary frequencies, of about 66 and 83 (periods of 8
and 6, respectively), correspond to the LCTV pixels to be
filtered. The recovered smoother signal for the left fringe
distribution is plotted in figure 5.
The correlation product of the left and right smoothed
Row number
signals is shown in figure 6. The maximum location process
is easier and gives more accurate results. The correlation Figure 5. Cosinusoidal adjustment for the left distribution.
function of two infinite sequences having the same period
is periodic itself, so a series of equally-spaced maxima
should appear. When the input signals are finite, as the
one plotted in figure 5, their correlation product has a eu
tendency to decrease as it approaches the edges of the la
functions, because less non-zero points contribute to the V
no
summation of equation (4). This introduces an error in it
al
the maximum position determination. So the graph in er
figure 6 has several maxima with decreasing amplitude as ro
they move further away from the origin; moreover they are C
not exactly separated by one period. In order to reduce
de
izl
measurement errors, an average value of several peaks has a
been considered. This gives a right–left fringe displacement mr
1: o
N
X  
Row Displacementpeak
1= Remainder M (5)
peak
P
Row Displacement

where M is the number of averaged peaks (if all of them
are considered, M = 2N/P ). The result for the signals
presented in this work is 1 = 29.5 pixels.
3.2. Period measurement
The period of the fringes can be determined either from
the left or right cosinusoidal distributions or from their
correlation product. We have chosen the latter, which
directly gives an average measure. The Fourier transform
of the signal has to be computed and the frequency that
gives a maximum value determined. From equation (2), an
accuracy error εf in the frequency calculation is translated
f the number of points is high. The period obtained from the
into a period error, εP ,
Figure 6. The correlation product between the cosinusoidal
adjusted signals.
the Fourier transformation process so the total number of
points increases, thus providing better resolution. We have
considered that εf = 1/64 is an acceptable value for our
calculations.
In figure 7, a Fourier plane comparison between the left
and right fringe distributions and their correlation product
is preserved. Note that while the left and right signals
have a 0.25 resolution (3N zero points were added to the
original signal) the correlation signal looks continuous, as
Fourier transform correlation function is P = 61.94 pixels,
  so the final fringe shift is
 ∂P  P 2
f
εP =   εf  = εf (6)
∂f  N
where all the errors are taken to be positive.
As a consequence of the fast Fourier transform routine
employed for the calculations [11], the resolution error
εf is the ratio between N and the number of points of
the signal to be transformed. As the correlation product
has 2N information terms, εf = 0.5, which would give
f
εP = 16 pixels for a period P = 64. In order to
reduce this error, it is possible to add non-data zeros to
φ = 2π 1/P = 0.95π = 171◦ .
3.3. Precision and error discussion
The whole phase shift measurement method involves var-
ious steps with an associated error, as the digitalization
process, the one-dimensional fringe distribution approxima-
tion, the cosinusoidal adjustment and the finite correlation
product obtention. All these sources of error should be con-
sidered, apart from the implicit precision error derived from
767
E Martı́n-Badosa et al

Normalized Fourier Transform

left

right

correlation

Frequency
Figure 7. Fourier transform of the correlation product and of the single signals.

the displacement and period calculations. For instance, if 0.050

the fringes are not perfectly aligned in the horizontal direc- εφ

P, dig.

εφ
0.045
tion, the corresponding perpendicular cosinusoidal distribu- P, f

tion direction should be examined. In order to correct the 0.040 εφ

P

error introduced when the y-direction is used to perform εφ∆ , res.

0.035
the measures, the phase shift obtained when all the LCTV ε∆, f
φ
panel has the reference grey level (gl = 0), which should
ε∆
π

0.030

be null if the fringes where perfectly aligned, is subtracted / φ

r εφ
from all the measures. or 0.025
r
Moreover, we have chosen a frequency for the fringes E
0.020
which minimizes the whole process error. Intuitively,
one can see that too low a frequency would imply small 0.015

digitalization imprecisions but a large period miscalculation

0.010
and little correlation maxima for fringe displacement
determination; in contrast, too high a frequency (very 0.005

narrow fringes) would have great digitalization inaccuracy,

0.000
although the following displacement and period calculation
would be very precise. 0 32 64 96 128 160 192 224 256

We have studied the different sources of error and P

their contribution to the total measurement error. From
Figure 8. The total phase measurement error as a function
equation (3) it is easy to derive of P .
   
εP ε1 εP ε1
εφ = |φ| + = |φ| + 2π
P |1| P |φ|P res
ε1 is due to the finite resolution of the correlation discrete
εP ε1
= |φ| + 2π ≡ εφ (φ, P ) (7) signal (equal to 0.5 pixels). Even if several peaks are
P P considered and averaged, as a resolution error the maximum
where εφ is the total phase error, εP is the period value of ε1 res
should still be 0.5 pixels. Nevertheless,
determination error and ε1 is the fringe displacement error, statistically speaking one expects that this error is also
all of which have several contributions. For εP we have averaged and diminishes as the number of peaks increases.
So
dig f dig P2 pix
εP = εP + εP = εP + εf (8) ε P pix
N
res
ε1 = 1 = ε1 (10)
M N
dig
where εP = 0.5 pixels (digitalization process) and the where M = N/P is the number of averaged peaks (we
second term is the precision error given in equation (6), consider that we take only half of them).
with εf = 1/64. On the other hand, The second term of equation (9) is a consequence of
the cosinusoidal adjustment period error: if we suppose
f f
ε1 = ε1
res
+ 2εP (9) that the left smooth fringe distribution has a period P + εP

768
 Complex modulation characterization of liquid crystal devices

The transmittance characteristics of the device are

BS2 LCTV
pol. measured by profiting from the same set-up as for the
M2 phase evaluation, in order to have identical experimental
conditions (figure 9). Note that only the right and upper
path is used. An intensity detector, such as a luxmeter,
which gives a linear output with respect to the intensity of
the light, is placed first before the LCTV and then after
it. The whole working performance of the liquid crystal
λ/2 display involves both polarizers, so the second one has to
INTENSITY be removed from its original position and placed between
DETECTOR the LCTV and the luxmeter. The transmittance of the
device is the ratio between the intensity of the light before
going through the panel and after it. The image displayed
on the SLM is uniform, all the pixels having the same
input grey-level value. The measurement is repeated for
each of the possible input values, so the dependence of
M1
the transmittance with the grey level is determined. The
BS1 pol. amplitude modulation is simply given by the transmittance
Figure 9. The experimental arrangement for the amplitude square root. An estimation of the normalized amplitude
modulation measurement: detail. The dashed path is not in relative error gives 1%.
use.

5. Characterization curves
f
and the right one P − εP , the correlation maxima would
be displaced from their original position by an amount of The amplitude and phase characteristics for specific
f
2εP . This gives polarizers and potentiometers configuration can be jointly
displayed on a complex plane curve (as in figure 10), where
P pix P2 each point stands for a single grey level, from gl = 0
ε1 = ε1 + 2 εf (11)
N N to gl = 255. The modulus of a vector from the origin
of coordinates to the considered point gives the amplitude
and a maximum total error εφmax (P ) = εφ (φ = π, P ), modulation and the angle within the real-positive axis is the
εφmax (P ) P ,dig P ,f 1,f
phase shift.
= εφP + εφ1 = εφ + εφ + εφ1,res + εφ The measurement has been repeated for 16 evenly
π
dig pix spaced grey-level values, corresponding to the squared
εP P ε P
= + εf + 1 + 2 εf (12) symbols in the curves. The remainder of the points (circles)
P N N N are obtained by linear interpolation.
dig pix
with N = 512, εf = 1/64, εP = ε1 = 0.5. Figure 8 We show two interesting LCTV configuration results:
shows the different contributions to the total error and the first one (figure 10(a)) corresponds to a high-contrast
their dependence with P . We can see that the intuitive mode, in which the device transmittance (amplitude square)
behaviour is well reproduced, giving a minimum value for increases with the grey level, reaching a normalized
the periods of about 64 pixels (eight maxima and eight maximum value of 1 for gl = 255. The contrast of the
minima in the digitized picture). The total maximum error modulator, defined as
is in this case 0.02π . Nevertheless, due to the variation
of the LCTV response with time, as a consequence, for C = Tmax /Tmin (13)
example, of the temperature dependence, we have observed
where T stands for the transmittance, is about 126:1. The
a variation of 0.05π over different measures taken in the
orientations of the first polarizer and the analyser (polarizer
same experimental conditions. This is the reason why we
placed after the LCTV) are indicated in degrees relative to
can state that, for a phase modulation characterization, the
the laboratory vertical, being positive if the polarizer turns
deviation from the real phase shift value is about 0.05π
clockwise in the direction of light propagation and negative
(9◦ ).
if it turns counterclockwise. The positions of the brightness
(Bn), contrast (Cn) and colour (Cl) potentiometers available
4. Amplitude modulation method on the videoprojector are also specified.
Figure 10(b) shows a phase-mostly configuration,
With the method described above, it is possible to determine because the transmittance is almost constant (the minimum
the change in light phase as it goes through the LCTV. A transmittance is about 85% of the maximum) and 1.9π
related intensity light variation is always present. For a phase modulation is achieved. The fact that a full
complete device calibration, it is then necessary to know its 2π radian modulation is not attained is due to LCTV
transmittance performance, usually called amplitude light limitations, so that the operation curve found is the best
modulation. Next, we briefly describe the transmittance one we can obtain with this device, considering almost
measurement method. constant transmittance. Furthermore, it does not represent a

769
E Martı́n-Badosa et al

Imag o
LCTV FL CCD
Pol: 6
o
1.0 Anal: -5
(Br,Cn,Cl)=(2,10,10)

0.5

PC

gl=0 gl=255

-1.0 -0.5 0.5 1.0

Real Figure 11. The joint transform correlator architecture

gl=37 scheme.
-0.5

detection is accomplished, the determination of its position,

is based on the obtention of the cross-correlation product
between the scene and the reference image. The joint
-1.0
transform correlator (JTC) is one of the possible coherent
processor architectures. Since 1967, when first introduced
by Weaver and Goodman [12], several improvements have
(a) been proposed in order to obtain real-time detection by
using liquid crystal devices. In the last few years, most
Imag o
Pol: 4 of the papers published have analysed different systems in
o
1.0 Anal: -65 order to increase discrimination capability.
(Br,Cn,Cl)=(0,10,0) A simple scheme of the JTC architecture is shown
gl=36 in figure 11: the scene and the reference are jointly
displayed on a liquid crystal device. A lens system
0.5 (FL) performs an optical Fourier transform, for which
the intensity distribution, called the joint power spectrum
(JPS), is registered by a CCD camera. In a second step,
gl=0 the JPS obtained is displayed on the LCTV and, after a
second Fourier transformation, the cross-correlation product
-1.0 gl=71 -0.5 0.5 1.0
between the scene and the reference is obtained, among
gl=255
Real other non-desirable terms such as self-correlation functions.
A quick review of the mathematical expressions follows.
-0.5 The JPS is described by the equation
I (u, v) = |HR (u, v)|2 +|H (u, v)|2 +2|HR (u, v)||H (u, v)|
× cos{2π(x0 u+y0 v)+φR (u, v)+φR (u, v)−φS (u, v)}
-1.0
(14)
gl=144
where |HR (u,v)| exp(iφR (u,v)) and |H(u,v)| exp(iφS (u, v))
are the Fourier transforms of the reference hR (x, y) and the
scene h(x, y), respectively. We assume that the scene is
(b) located at (x0 , y0 ). (u, v) stands for the spatial frequency
Figure 10. The amplitude-phase characterization curve: coordinates.
(a) high-contrast and (b) phase-mostly configurations. In a previous paper [13] we presented a simple
procedure for obtaining the cosine term in equation (14),
problem in pattern recognition applications, as we explain Ic1 (u, v) = cos{2π(x0 u+y0 v)+φR (u, v)−φS (u, v)} (15)
in the following section for the case of a phase-only joint
transform correlator. which, after a second Fourier transformation, performs δ-
like correlations in (x0 , y0 ) and (−x0 , −y0 ) if the object is
detected.
6. Application in a phase-only joint transform The idea of the present paper is to determine the phase
correlator distribution
6.1. Theoretical discussion 2π(x0 u + y0 v) + φR (u, v) − φS (u, v) (16)
One of the usual approaches for obtaining optical pattern which can be phase-modulated on the LCTV as
recognition, which consists of the detection of a target
image in a complex scene and, in the case that the ei(2π(x0 u+y0 v)+φR (u,v)−φS (u,v)) (17)

770
 Complex modulation characterization of liquid crystal devices

Figure 12. The binary input scene and reference (single

butterfly).

which gives a single detection peak and maximizes the

Figure 13. Correlation plane results for the phase-only
correlator light efficiency. This can be accomplished by
JTC.
inserting a constant phase factor of π/2 in the scene or in
the reference. This gives a JPS
IC2 (u, v) = cos{2π(x0 u + y0 v) + φR (u, v)
+π/2 − φS (u, v)}
= − sin{2π(x0 u + y0 v) + φR (u, v) − φS (u, v)} (18)
so
−IC2 (u, v)
arctan = 2π(x0 u + y0 v) + φR − φS . (19)
IC1 (u, v)

6.2. Experimental procedure and results

The LCTV characterized with the method developed in this
paper has been used in an optical joint transform correlator
as described above and sketched in figure 11. The scene
used is a complex one consisting of 16 butterflies, four of
them corresponding to the target below, to be recognized
(figure 12). A previous binarization of the scene, with
a proper threshold so that all the single patterns have
approximately the same energy, is necessary in this kind
of detection process. This is a consequence of the sine
distribution obtention, in which it is necessary to introduce
a constant π/2 phase shift between the scene and the
reference. This can be accomplished for a single grey level
but not for all of them. We have chosen the modulation
curve shown in figure 10(a), which gives a high contrast
between gl = 255 and gl = 0 (background) and a phase
shift between gl = 255 and gl = 37 of π/2. Because
the gl = 37 transmittance is about 44% of the maximum
(gl = 255), the scene (16 butterflies) is displayed on the
LCTV with a gl = 37 and the reference (a single butterfly)
in white (gl = 255), in order to have comparable energies
(or light transmittances).
In this way it is possible to obtain the cosine and sine
distributions of equations (15) and (18), so the final phase
information (equation (19)) can be computed. In order
to display this phase on the LCTV, a continuous phase-
modulation operation curve has to be determined, if it
Figure 14. A three-dimensional plot of the cross-correlation
term.
is possible with an associate high constant transmittance.
This is the case for the characterization conditions of
figure 10(b).
Finally, the phase-only correlation is obtained. The
whole correlation plane is shown in figure 13, where there
is only a small zero-order peak and the cross-correlation
between the scene and the reference is evident. The four
single peaks in the positions of the butterflies matching the
reference noticeable on the detailed three-dimensional plot
of the cross-correlation product of figure 14 demonstrate
how the detection process is successfully accomplished.
In a classical JTC (see equation (14)), a DC strong
spot and centred self-correlation terms would appear, which
would overlap with the shifted cross-correlation terms and
make the detection impossible. This can be worked out
by spatial separation of the scene and the reference on the
LCTV display, which is impossible for the images used

771
E Martı́n-Badosa et al
because of the low spatial resolution of the optoelectronic
devices available nowadays. This is one of the main
advantages of the method presented here, apart from it
being much more light efficient.
7. Conclusions
A new phase modulation SLM characterization method has
been explained, which gives sufficiently accurate results for
the LCTV available. An amplitude calibration method that
makes use of the same experimental set-up has also been
described. Both of these methods give a general procedure
for SLM full complex characterization.
Two interesting operation configurations have been
presented: one that gives 1.9π phase modulation with little
transmission changes and a high-contrast one (126:1) with
little phase distortion.
Although the LCTV response changes with ambient and
operation conditions, it can be useful for modulating the
light as desired: a new optical pattern recognition approach,
based on a joint transform correlator architecture that
only makes use of phase information, has been presented.
Experimental results show that this is a good detection set-
up and has very high diffraction efficiency, because the
light absorption is minimum.
Acknowledgments
This work has been supported in part by CICYT, under
contract TAP94-0303. Estela Martı́n-Badosa acknowledges
a grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya.
772
References
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