Investigation of fringing electric field effect on high-resolution blue phase liquid crystal spatial light modulator.

The fringing electric field effect which determines the performance of a high-resolution blue phase liquid crystal spatial light modulator (BPLC-SLM) is investigated by numerical modeling. The BPLC-SLM is polarization-dependent due to the transverse electric field component. The physical mechanism of the phase profile properties for different polarization states is analyzed. General design issues related to the BPLC-SLM configuration and phase profile properties are discussed. Notably, the material parameters and cell gap thickness are both optimized to obtain a low operation voltage (V_2π=26.07  V). This work provides fundamental understanding for the feasibility of low operation voltage and high spatial resolution BPLC-SLM.