Measurement of the complex transmittance of the Epson liquid crystal television

The complex transmittance of an Epson liquid crystal television (LCTV) is determined as a function of the video drive signal. Several different operating configurations of the LCTV are established, and their usefulness as operating modes for spatial light modulators in the input and filter planes of a hybrid correlator is discussed. A high-stability phase measurement scheme is developed to determine the operating curves, and this system is presented. This measurement scheme is designed so that a fully characterized LCTV could be assuredly moved into the optical correlator. This allows filters to be calculated for the correlator using the exact physical action of the modulators. The transient response of the LCTV to field-rate changes in the video signal is also presented. It is observed that the switching speed of the liquid crystal molecules is a fundamental limitation on the operating speed of these devices.