Electrically and Optically Dually-Addressable Spatial Light

SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS (SLMs) PLAY A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ROLE IN OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING AND OPTICAL COMPUTING. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSED WORK IS TO DEVELOP A NOVEL ELECTRICALLY AND OPTICALLY DUALLY-ADDRESSABLE SLM USING QUANTEX ELECTRON TRAPPING (ET) MATERIALS. IN ADDITION TO ITS FAST RESPONSE TIME, HIGH RESOLUTION, LARGE DYNAMIC RANGE AND LOW DRIVEN VOLTAGE, THE PROPOSED ET-SLM HAS TWO INPUT PORTS AND CAN BE ADDRESSED SIMULTANEOUSLY BY AN OPTICAL INPUT AND AN ELECTRICAL INPUT. THIS UNIQUE FEATURE SUBSTANTIALLY IMPROVES THE VERSATILITY AND APPLICATION FLEXIBILITY OF THE ET-SLM. IT ALSO PROVIDES THE SYSTEM DEVELOPER A MORE POWERFUL DEVICE TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE OPTICAL PROCESSING ARCHITECTURES THAT ARE NOT IMPLEMENTABLE WITH CURRENTLY AVAILABLE SLMs, EITHER OPTICALLY OR ELECTRICALLY ADDRESSABLE. IN PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT, SINGLE-PIXEL SAMPLE DEVICES WILL BE FABRICATED AND CHARACTERIZED TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE PROPOSED DUALLY-ADDRESSABLE ET-SLM. A LIMITED-SCALE PROTOTYPE WILL ALSO BE DESIGNED. THIS PROTOTYPE WILL BW FABRICATED, TESTED, AND DELIVERED IN PHASE II.