OBLIQUE-CUT LINBO3 MICROCHANNEL SPATIAL LIGHT-MODULATOR

Significant improvements in the spatial resolution, framing speed, optical quality, and space-domain image-processing capabilities of the microchannel spatial light modulator have been realized by employing oblique-cut rather than z-cut LiNbO3 crystals, high-strip-current (250-μA) microchannel plates, and an acceleration grid in the gap of the device. In particular, a prototype device employing a 330-μm-thick, optimum-cut (rotated 55° from the z axis) LiNbO3 crystal exhibited a framing rate in excess of 30 Hz with full modulation depth and a spatial resolution of ∼1.9 cycles/mm at 50% contrast (∼10 cycles/mm at 10% contrast). Additionally, four-level to two-level intensity image conversion, contrast reversal, contrast enhancement, edge enhancement, and the binary-level operations AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, and NXOR have been demonstrated by operating the device in its space-domain image-processing mode. © 1982, Optical Society of America.