We report on a new mechanism of giant phase modulation. The phenomenon arises when a dispersed photonic mode (slow light) strongly couples to an excitonic resonance. In such a case, even a small amount of optically injected carriers creates a potential barrier for the propagating exciton-polariton which provokes a considerable phase shift. We evidence this effect by fabricating an exciton-polariton Mach-Zehnder interferometer, modulating the output intensity by constructive or destructive interferences controlled by optical pumping of a micrometric size area. The figure of merit for a π phase shift, defined by the control power times length of the modulated region, is found at least one order of magnitude smaller than slow light photonic crystal waveguides.

The inherent distortion of a reflective parallel aligned spatial light modulator (SLM) may need compensation not only for the backplane curvature but also for other possible nonuniformities caused by thickness variations of the liquid crystal layer across the aperture. First, we build a global look-up table (LUT) of phase modulation versus the addressed gray level for the whole device aperture. Second, when a lack of spatial uniformity is observed, we define a grid of cells onto the SLM aperture and develop a multipoint calibration. The relative phase variations between neighboring cells for a uniform gray level lead us to build a multi-LUT for improved compensation. Multipoint calibration can be done using either phase-shift interferometry or Fourier diffraction pattern analysis of binary phase gratings. Experimental results show the compensation progress in diffractive optical elements displayed on two SLMs.

We propose a new multicriteria method for the determination of computer-generated holograms (CGH's). For this purpose, the direct binary search (DBS) algorithm for computing CGH's has been modified to converge on a new error function that defines the optimal trade-off among different criteria. This approach allows us to control the trade-off between the amplitude error and the diffraction efficiency and to provide a rigorous figure of merit. Comparisons among different encoding methods show that the best results are obtained with a modified version of the DBS method combined with the iterative Fourier transform algorithm.

We propose the optical implementation of diffractive optical elements onto electrically addressed liquid-crystal spatial light modulators. We compare the classic implementations onto amplitude-only or phase-only domains with the implementations onto coupled phase and amplitude (spiral) domains. We demonstrate that the coupling between amplitude and phase provides a trade-off between diffraction efficiency and the signal-to-noise ratio in the reconstruction. Furthermore, when investigating the influence of the maximum dephasing on phase domains and spiral domains through the use of optimal trade-off design, we show that phase-only domains with limited maximum dephasing can provide satisfactory performance. Finally, optical implementations are provided.