SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATOR, AND SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATING METHOD

摘要

A spatial light modulator is provided with: a liquid crystal layer for modulating the phase of incident light in accordance with the size of the applied electric field; a temperature sensor (17) for generating a temperature signal (Stemp) which is a signal corresponding to the temperature of the liquid crystal layer; a phase modulating unit (10) disposed on each of a plurality of pixels and comprising a plurality of pixel electrodes for applying, to the liquid crystal layer, a voltage for generating the applied electric field; and a driving device (20A) for supplying a voltage to the plurality of pixel electrodes of the phase modulating unit (10). The driving device (20A) has a non-volatile storage element (23) which pre-stores a coefficient (a) included in a function representing the correlation between the temperature difference amount relative to the standard temperature (T0) of the liquid crystal layer and the fluctuation amount of the phase modulating amount in the liquid crystal layer. The driving device (20A) uses the coefficient (a) and the temperature represented by the temperature signal (Stemp) to perform a calculation for correcting the magnitude of the phase modulation amount indicating value. As a consequence, it is possible to obtain a spatial light modulator that is easily produced and a spatial light modulating method whereby it is possible to reduce the necessary storage capacity and to improve the accuracy of the applied voltage value in relation to the desired phase modulating amount.