The complex transmittance of an Epson liquid crystal television (LCTV)
is determined as a function of the video drive signal. Several differ
ent operating configurations of the LCTV are established, and their us
efulness as operating modes for spatial light modulators in the input
and filter planes of a hybrid correlator is discussed. A high-stabilit
y phase measurement scheme is developed to determine the operating cur
ves, and this system is presented. This measurement scheme is designed
so that a fully characterized LCTV could be assuredly moved into the
optical correlator. This allows filters to be calculated for the corre
lator using the exact physical action of the modulators. The transient
response of the LCTV to field-rate changes in the video signal is als
o presented. It is observed that the switching speed of the liquid cry
stal molecules is a fundamental limitation on the operating speed of t
hese devices.