Electrically addressable lasing pixel for large screen display

A novel lasing projection system based on the concept of an image mode is presented. Such a laser uses a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) light valve as a voltage driven spatially patterned loss element placed within a laser cavity. In the regions where the cavity loss is sufficiently high, the local transverse area of the laser is below threshold, whereas in the transparent regions, the area is above threshold. By addressing certain parts of the loss medium, the laser can be forced to have a transverse mode profile which exists in those transparent parts of the light valve, which can then be projected onto the display screen.