Nematic liquid crystal digital light deflector.

We report the principle of a new type of digital light deflector utilizing the electrooptic effect of index modulation in nematic liquid crystals and the results of the optical tests that were performed on this device. Optical efficiencies and contrasts, electrical operating conditions, and subsequent turnon times are given. A further experiment concerning the deflection of a colored image in incoherent white light is described, which shows that this device seems to be the more interesting for a lot of applications, especially portable ones.