Generation of diffractive optical elements onto photopolymer using liquid crystal on silicon displays

Abstract

In recent years, the optical storage and optical information processing technologies based on holographic and photonic techniques are suffering a huge improvement. On the other hand, Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) based on LCoS microdisplays (PA-LCoS) open new possibilities to modulate the wavefront of a light beam. PA-LCoS are high resolution reflective devices which make possible the generation of Diffractive Optical Elements (DOE) with many important applications in photonics, communications of optical information processing, whenever it exists the possibility to have a recording material with the optimum characteristics for each application. Recently it is being explored the incorporation of photopolymers, initially used for holographic recording and data storage applications, to fabricate DOEs. Working with a setup based on a LCoS display as a master, we can store complex DOE, such as blazed gratings or diffractive lenses onto the photopolymers. We used a coverplating and index matching system on the material to avoid the influence of the thickness variation on the transmitted light.