Transmission and phase measurement for polarization eigenvectors in twisted-nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulators

Recently we published theoretical expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenvectors for a twisted-nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LCSLM) as a function of the twist angle and birefringence using the Jones matrix formalism. These polarization eigenvectors are of interest for newer video graphics adapter (VGA) resolution (640 3480 pixels) LCSLMs that are thinner and consequently have a lower birefringence. Although these devices can produce excellent amplitude modulation, they cannot achieve phase-only modulation using linearly polarized light. In these cases, the polarization eigenvectors are required to obtain phase-only modulation. We present experimental measurements for bot…