Abstract

We propose the application of a thermally tunable grating as a spatial light modulator. The grooves of a square-well grating are filled with a liquid whose refractive index depends on temperature. The variation of optical characteristics of such a grating with respect to temperature is investigated theoretically and also by simulation and experiment. A thin-film heater is then used as a heat source. The relation between intensity of the first order of diffraction versus power consumption of the thin-film heater is investigated. Finally, a thin-film heater with a desired pattern is placed at the surface of the grating to fabricate spatial light modulator. By applying electrical current to different elements of the thin-film heater, the fabricated device can project a desired pattern on a screen using a $4f$ imaging system. The restrictions of such a device are discussed and another structure is proposed and discussed by numerical calculations to increase the ability of the device.

© 2009 Optical Society of America

Fabrication of a thermally actuated tunable grating and its application as a CO₂ laser beam profile analyzer

Mohammadreza Riahi, Hamid Latifi, and Ghazaleh Moghimislam
Appl. Opt. 47(28) 5175-5181 (2008)

Characteristics of heat flow in optical fiber devices that use integrated thin-film heaters

John A. Rogers, Paulina Kuo, Ashish Ahuja, Benjamin J. Eggleton, and Rebecca J. Jackman
Appl. Opt. 39(28) 5109-5116 (2000)

Optimization of distributed resistive metal film heaters in thermally tunable dispersion compensators for high-bit-rate communication systems

Paul Steinvurzel, Robert A. MacHarrie, Kirk W. Baldwin, Charles W. Van Hise, Benjamin J. Eggleton, and John A. Rogers
Appl. Opt. 44(14) 2782-2791 (2005)

Dual on-fiber thin-film heaters for fiber gratings with independently adjustable chirp and wavelength

John A. Rogers, Benjamin J. Eggleton, Rebecca J. Jackman, Glen R. Kowach, and Thomas A. Strasser
Opt. Lett. 24(19) 1328-1330 (1999)

Experiments of a grating light modulator for projection display applications

Zhang Jie, Zhu Yong, Sun Jiyong, Wang Ning, and Wei Wei
Appl. Opt. 48(9) 1675-1682 (2009)