Ferroelectric liquid-crystal spatial light modulator achieving bipolar image operation and cascadability.

An optically addressable spatial light modulator is developed that has a reversible storage capability and cascadability. It consists of a sandwich structure of a hydrogenated amorphous-silicon photoconductor, a dielectric mirror, and a surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal in a chiral smectic C phase. This spatial light modulator can amplify images because of the complete separation of the write and the read light by the dielectric mirror. The structure, the driving method, and the characteristics of the device are described.