Measurement of Modulation of the Phase Liquid-Crystal Light Modulator Santec SLM-200 and Analysis of Its Applicability for the Reconstruction of Images from Diffraction Elements

We consider the problem of achieving high stability and linearity of phase liquid-crystal space-time light modulators, which are widely used for optical reconstruction of diffractive optical elements, including holograms. Modern high-resolution space-time light modulators one uses a digital signal addressing circuit, which leads to phase shift fluctuations during the frame. For the modern high-resolution phase liquid crystal space-time light modulator Santec SLM-200, the dependences of the phase shift on the level of the addressed signal and time from the beginning of the frame have been measured. Using the Santec SLM-200 light modulator, optical reconstruction of images from diffractive elements of different types was performed, their diffraction efficiency and the quality of the reconstructed images were evaluated. The values of the diffraction efficiency were obtained in the range of 3–10%; a sharp drop in the brightness of the reconstructed images is observed with distance from the optical axis in the plane of reconstruction.