Binary-phase Complex Spatial Light Modulators Driven by Mirror Symmetry

Binary-phase complex spatial light modulators (BP-C-SLMs) are proposed and simulated. This study shows that bottom-top mirror-symmetrical uniaxial systems between two orthogonal polarizers allow one to construct BP-C-SLMs. BP-C-SLMs double the information-handling capacity per pixel, compared to the conventional amplitude-only spatial light modulators (A-SLMs), as well as being simply implemented with a single spatial light modulator (SLM), rather than a combination of an A-SLM and a binary-phase SLMs. Under limited conditions, BP-C-SLMs can control only the amplitude in single-phase space, and act as A-SLMs.