Technical Whitepapers

A collection of general discussions and in-depth technical notes featuring Boulder Nonlinear Sytstems' products and services.
(You will need Adobe Systems' free Acrobat Reader™ software to view or print these documents. )

Title	Summary	Related Product(s)
32-channel Spatial Light Modulator Driver Subsystem	The basic principles used in our 32-channel driver used for our analog liquid crystal 512x512 pixel SLM.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM
512 Spatial Light Modulator System Description	A system level description of the BNS 512 X 512 SLM including the mechanical mount system, drive electronics, software and cable connections.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM
Analog Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals	Performance data showing the frequency dependant nature of FLC devices such that the same digital pixel value will give different polarization rotations at different frequencies.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM, 1 X 4096 SLM
Beam Steering Using Liquid Crystals	A discussion of the considerations necessary for the design and application of liquid crystal beam steerers.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM, 1 X 4096 SLM
Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Based Polarization Filters	The principles involved in tuning Liquid crystal tunable filters (LCTFs) using Fabry-Perot and polarization interference effects.	Rotators, Shutters
Image Resolution vs. Bit-Depth	Deciding trade-offs between resolution and bit-depth when specifying SLMs.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM, 1 X 4096 SLM
Liquid Crystal Fabry-Perot Tunable Filter	The design considerations surrounding the use of Liquid Crystal Fabry-Perot Filters.	Rotators, Shutters
Liquid Crystal Reference	A brief description of characteristics, typical configurations, and applications for Nematic, Smectic C, and Smectic A LCs.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM, 1 X 4096 SLM
System Tuning Considerations	Tuning systems to match the characteristics of the SLM to achieve maximum contrast.	256 X 256 SLM, 512 X 512 SLM, 1 X 4096 SLM

Liquid Crystal Beamsteering

Advances in liquid crystal based devices for wavefront control and beamsteering Steven Serati, Jay Stockley Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5894 (Aug 2005)

Nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulator’s response to total-dose irradiation Stephen DeWalt, Kyle Miller, Jay Stockley Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5554, pp. 46-58 (Oct 2004)

Advances in liquid crystal beam steering Jay Stockley, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5550, pp. 32-39 (Oct 2004)

Beam combining using a phased array of phased arrays (PAPA) Steven Serati, Hugh Masterson and Anna Linnenberger 2004 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 5.0205 (Mar 2004)

Liquid crystal spatial light modulator for multispot beam steering Jay Stockley, Steve Serati, Xiaodong Xun, Robert Cohn Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5160, pp. 208-215 (Jan 2004)

Cascaded one-dimensional liquid crystal OPAs for 2-D beam steering Jay Stockley, Steve Serati 2003 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 5.0701 (Mar 2003)

Phased array of phased array for free-space optical communications Steve Serati, Jay Stockley 2003 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 5.0503 (Mar 2003)

Advanced liquid crystal on silicon optical phased arrays Steven Serati, Jay Stockley 2002 IEEE Aerospace Conference, paper 5.0301 (Mar 2002)

Liquid Crystal optical phase modulators for beam steering Jay Stockley, Xiaowei Xia, Teresa Ewing, and Steve Serati MRS Proceedings, Vol. 709, pp. 55-66 (2001)

Structured polymer/liquid crystal for switchable diffractive and micro-optics Darius Subacius, Jay Stockley, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3778, pp. 53-61 (Sep 1999)

Liquid crystal on VLSI silicon optical phased array Jay Stockley, Darius Subacius, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3787, pp. 105-114 (Jul 1999)

Broadband phase-modulating system for white-light Fourier transformations Jay Stockley, Steven Serati, Darius Subacius, Kevin McIntyre, Ken Walsh Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3633, p. 196-205 (Jun 1999)

Influence of the interpixel region in liquid crystal diffraction gratings Jay Stockley, Darius Subacius, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3635, pp. 127-136 (Mar 1999)

Broadband beam steering Jay Stockley, Steven Serati, Gary Sharp, Ping Wang, Ken Walsh, Kristina Johnson Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3131, pp. 111-123 (Jul 1997)

Optical Correlators

Optical correlator using four kilohertz analog spatial light modulators Teresa Ewing, Steve Serati and Kipp Bauchert Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5437, p. 123-133 (Apr 2004)

Data flow architecture for high-speed optical processors Kipp Bauchert and Steve Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3386, pp.50-58 (Apr 1998)

Complex phase/amplitude spatial light modulator advances and use in a multispectral optical correlator Kipp Bauchert, Steven Serati, Gary Sharp, Douglas McKnight Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3073, pp. 170-177 (Mar 1997)

Programmable 128 x 128 ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator compact correlator Steven Serati, Teresa Ewing, Roylnn Serati, Kristina Johnson, Darren Simon Proc. SPIE, Vol. 1959, pp. 55-68 (Apr 1993)

Liquid Crystal Spectrometers

Near IR electro-optic imaging Fourier transform spectrometer Tien-Hsin Chao, Hanying Zhou, Xiaowei Xia, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5816, pp. 163-172 (Mar 2005)

Electro-optic imaging fourier transform spectrometer Tien-Hsin Chao, Hanying Zhou, Xiaowei Xia, Steve Serati NASA Earth Science Technology Conference, B5P1, (Jun 2004)

Hyperspectral imaging using electro-optic Fourier transform spectrometer Tien-Hsin Chao, Hanying Zhou, Xiaowei Xia, Steve Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5437, (Apr 2004)

Liquid crystal Fourier transform spectrometer Gary Sharp, Ping Wang, Steven Serati, Teresa Ewing Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3384, pp. 161-171 (Jul 1998)

Spectral Filters

Novel Polarization interference filters for wide spectral tuning of an optical null Hugh Masterson, Jay Stockley Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5289, p. 38-52 (May 2004)

Liquid crystal modulated optical CDMA in a fiber-based testbed Yijing Fu, Frank Barnes, Teresa Ewing, Steven Serati, Xiaowei Xia Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5595, p. 302-309 (Oct 2004)

Demonstration of reconfigurable O-CDMA using liquid crystal modulators Xiaowei Xia, Teresa Ewing, Steven Serati, Yijing Fu, Rong Zhou, John Neff, Frank Barnes Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5246, pp. 95-102 (Aug 2003)

Advances in polarization-based liquid crystal optical filters Xiaowei Xia, Jay Stockley, Teresa Ewing, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4658, pp. 51-58 (May 2002)

Fabry Perot etalon with polymer cholesteric liquid-crystal mirrors Jay Stockley, Gary Sharp, Kristina Johnson Optics Letters, Vol. 24, Issue 1, p. 55 (Jan 1999)

Spatial Light Modulators – Phase Modulation / Wavefront Control

Wide field-of-view imaging system using a liquid crystal spatial light modulator G. Curatu, D. Wick, D. Payne, T. Martinez, J. Harriman, J. Harvey, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5874, (Aug 2005)

Comparison of reflective and transmissive spatial light modulators for optical manipulator applications Jamie Harriman, Steven Serati, Jay Stockley Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5930, (Aug 2005)

Improving spatial light modulator performance through phase compensation Jamie Harriman, Anna Linnenberger, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5553, (Oct 2004).

High-resolution phase-only spatial light modulators with sub-millisecond response Steven Serati, Xiaowei Xia, Owais Mughal, Anna Linnenberger Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5106, pp. 138-145 (Aug 2003)

New developments in high-resolution liquid-crystal spatial light modulators for wavefront control Steven Serati, Teresa Ewing, Jay Stockley Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4825, pp. 46-55 (Nov 2002)

LC phase shifters and passive high-resolution wavefront control using -matrix addressing Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4124, pp.47-56 (Nov 2000)

SLMs meet the challenge of new applications Steven Serati and Kipp Bauchert Laser Focus World, Vol. 35, No. 5, p 229 (May 1999)

Progress report of USAF Research Laboratory liquid crystal AO program Sergio Restaino, Don Payne, Michael Anderson, Jeffrey Baker, Steven Serati, Gary Loos Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3353, pp. 776-781 (Sep 1998)

Analog optical phase modulator based on chiral smectic and polymer cholesteric liquid crystals Jay Stockley, Gary Sharp, Steven Serati, Kristina Johnson Optics Letters, Vol. 20, Issue 23, p. 2441 (Dec 1995)

Spatial Light Modulators – Amplitude Modulation

Liquid crystal on silicon infrared scene projectors Teresa Ewing, William Folks Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5785, p. 36-45 (April 2005)

Development of large-array spatial light modulators Steven Serati, Kipp Bauchert, Peter Millett Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5362, p. 119-127, (Jun 2004)

Advances in liquid crystal spatial light modulators Kipp Bauchert, Steven Serati, Alex Furman Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4734, pp. 35-43 (Apr 2002)

High-speed multilevel 512x512 spatial light modulator Kipp Bauchert, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4043, pp. 59-65 (Mar 2000)

High-speed multilevel phase/amplitude spatial light modulator advances Kipp Bauchert, Steven Serati Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3715, pp. 90-96 (Mar 1999)

Sampling technique for achieving full unit-circle coverage using a real-axis spatial light modulator Steven Serati, Kipp Bauchert Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3715, pp. 112-119 (Mar 1999)

Analog spatial light modulators: advances and applications Steven Serati, Kipp Bauchert Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3292, pp. 2-12 (Apr 1998)

128 x 128 analog liquid crystal spatial light modulator Steven Serati, Gary Sharp, Roylnn Serati, Douglas McKnight, Jay Stockley Proc. SPIE, Vol. 2490, pp. 378-387 (Mar 1995)

256 by 256 liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator Douglas McKnight, Kristina Johnson, Roylnn Serati Applied Optics, Vol. 33, Issue 14, p. 2775 (May 1994)

High-speed analog achromatic intensity modulator Jay Stockley, Gary Sharp, Dave Doroski, Kristina Johnson Optics Letters, Vol. 19, Issue 10, p. 758 (May 1994)

Electrically addressed 256 by 256 liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator Douglas McKnight, Roylnn Serati, Kristina Johnson Optics Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 24, p. 2159 (Dec 1993)