RECONFIGURABLE 2-DIMENSIONAL DIFFRACTIVE PHASE ELEMENT WITH THE FRACTIONAL TALBOT EFFECT

We investigate the technical feasibility of the optical implementation of a four-phase-level diffractive element with two {0, pi}-phase spat ial light modulators in a fractional Talbot configuration. The space-b andwidth product of the spatial light modulators is seen as the main t heoretical limitation of the proposed approach. We investigate the rob ustness of technological and geometrical parameters on the diffraction efficiency of the whole system. Ferroelectric liquid-crystal silicon backplane spatial light modulators are chosen because of their high re configuration rates and good electro-optics interface. Similarly, we a ssess the influence of liquid-crystal technical parameters on system p erformance. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.