SPATIAL FLUCTUATIONS OF AN OPTICAL-FIELD MODULATED WITH SPATIAL LIGHTMODULATORS AND NOISY INPUT SIGNALS

Electrically addressed spatial light modulators (EASLM's) are currentl y used in many coherent optical signal processing applications. Within the EASLM the input signal is generally transformed in a nonlinear fa shion. The noise on the input signal that is sent to the EASLM is then also transformed nonlinearly. In particular, even with additive and h omogeneous input noise, the color of the noise as well as the signal-t o-noise ratio of the input signal can be significantly modified. We pr opose a new general formalism for the determination of the spatial cov ariance of the optical field that is due to nonlinear transformation o f the input noise. Applications of this new formalism are illustrated for Gaussian correlated noise.