Low voltage blue phase liquid crystal for spatial light modulators

We demonstrated a low-voltage polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) for phase-only modulation with a liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS). A new device configuration was developed, which allows the incident laser beam to traverse the BPLC layer four times before exiting the LCoS. As a result, the 2π phase change voltage is reduced to below 24 V in the visible region. The response time remains relatively fast (∼3 ms). The proposed device configuration enables widespread applications of BPLC spatial light modulators.