Abstract
Magnetooptical spatial light modulators (MOSLMs) are photonic devices that encode information in photonic waveforms by changing their amplitude and phase using magnetooptical Faraday or Kerr rotation. Despite the progress on both MO materials and switching methods, significant improvements on materials engineering and SLM design are needed for demonstrating low-power, multicolor, analog and high-contrast MOSLM devices. In this study, we present design rules and example designs for a high-contrast and large figure-of-merit MOSLM using three-color magnetophotonic crystals (MPC). We demonstrate for the first time, a three-defect MPC capable of simultaneously enhancing Faraday rotation, and high-contrast modulation at three fundamental wavelengths of red, green and blue (RGB) within the same pixel. We show using 2D finite-difference time-domain simulations that bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet films are promising for low-loss and high Faraday rotation MOSLM device in the visible band. Faraday rotation and loss spectra as well as figure-of-merit values are calculated for different magnetophotonic crystals of the form (H/L)p/(D/L)q/(H/L)p. After an optimization of layer thicknesses and MPC configuration, Faraday rotation values were found to be between 20–55° for losses below 20 dB in an overall thickness less than 1.5 µm including three submicron garnet defect layers. The experimental demonstration of our proposed 3-color MOSLM devices can enable bistable photonic projectors, holographic displays, indoor visible light communication devices, photonic beamforming for 5 G telecommunications and beyond.
Highlights
Spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device, which uses an array of pixels to control the amplitude and phase of light as a function of position
Many studies were done in order to reduce power consumption by engineering the device configuration and drive lines[3,12] or material and synthesis conditions[21,22], and voltage-driven Magnetooptical spatial light modulators (MOSLMs) was proposed by Park et al.[23] to alleviate power dissipation and heating problem of drive lines
For an MOSLM which can perform modulation in RGB, we propose a magnetophotonic crystal with three defects presenting resonance peaks in red, green and blue band
Summary
Spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device, which uses an array of pixels to control the amplitude and phase of light as a function of position. Many studies were done in order to reduce power consumption by engineering the device configuration and drive lines[3,12] or material and synthesis conditions[21,22], and voltage-driven MOSLM was proposed by Park et al.[23] to alleviate power dissipation and heating problem of drive lines Another challenge with MOSLMs is the inherent weakness of MO effects especially in visible band, while pixel contrast in these modulators depends on the MO rotation angle. This makes the fabrication very difficult and transmittance would significantly drop due to multiple layers of metallic arrays
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