Optically addressable hybrid: photoconducting polymer-liquid crystal panels

Abstract

The performances of photorefractive hybrid panels made from photoconducting polymer and nematic liquid crystal layers are reviewed and discussed. Their properties were studied under pulsed and cw illumination. The dynamic holography experiments with pulsed laser beams give information on the charge mobility in the thin photoconducting layers. The use of panels to visualize the phase objects introducing small distortions to plane wave front (such as e.g. turbulence of air) through the well-known Zemike filtering is also shown. The advantage of such nonlinear Zernike filter over conventional one is that no precise optical adjustment is necessary and the filtering is relatively easy to control by tuning the externally applied field to the modulator and/or varying the incoming light intensity.