Liquid crystal spatial light modulator based non-mechanical beam steering system fractional-order model.

Abstract

The liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LCSLM) is an optical device that can realise non-mechanical beam scanning. However, the traditional integer-order model cannot adequately characterise the dynamic performance of LCSLM beam steering because of the viscoelasticity of liquid crystals. This paper uses the memory characteristics of fractional calculus to construct a fractional constitutive equation for liquid crystals. Combining this equation with the LCSLM beam steering principle, a fractional-order model of the beam steering system is established, and the Legendre wavelet integration operational matrix method is used to estimate the model parameters. In addition, we established a test platform for the dynamic characteristics of LCSLM beam steering system and verified the effectiveness of the established model through experiments. The fitting effects of the integer-order and fractional-order models are compared, and the influence of different model orders on the dynamic performance of beam steering is analysed. Experimental results show that the fractional-order model can accurately describe the dynamic process of beam steering, and this model can be applied to the study of LCSLM-based two-dimensional non-mechanical beam steering control strategies to achieve fast, accurate, and stable beam scanning.