Investigation of fringing electric field effect on high-resolution blue phase liquid crystal spatial light modulator

The fringing electric field effect which determines the performance of a high-resolution blue phase liquid crystal spatial light modulator (BPLC-SLM) is investigated by numerical modeling. The BPLC-SLM is polarizationdependent due to the transverse electric field component. The physical mechanism of the phase profile properties for different polarization states is analyzed. General design issues related to the BPLC-SLM configuration and phase profile properties are discussed. Notably, the material parameters and cell gap thickness are both optimized to obtain a low operation voltage (V-2 pi = 26.07 V). This work provides fundamental understanding for the feasibility of low operation voltage and high spatial resolution BPLC-SLM. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America