Modulating both amplitude and phase in a single spatial light modulator (SLM)

An innovative design method to perform both amplitude modulation (AM) and phase modulation (PM) within a single SLM is introduced. Light propagation is controlled in two different directions to perform both AM and PM via liquid crystals alignment layer based on technologies by using photo masks, e-beam technologies, or nano-imprint lithography (NIL), which are discussed and proved to be the implementation to create embossed nanostructures to tune incident light and control the polarization and propagation direction of the light entering the liquid crystals of a single SLM device. This method alleviates the issues in using two separated SLMs trying to achieve the same. Further, the designs are amenable to smaller footprint, lower cost packaging, easier pixel to pixel alignment, and reduced pixel pitches to enhance performance. It will be readily and applicable in holographic display and other LCoS-SLM based for AR-VR glasses application once fabricated in the future.