Optical on-axis imperfect phase-only correlator using liquid-crystal television

We present a VanderLugt-type optical phase-only correlator that uses the currently available liquidcrystal television. Theoretical and experimental results show that phase mismatching and phase and amplitude cross coupling of the liquid-crystal television can reduce the peak intensity to approximately 60%-70%. The imperfect phase-only filter yields on-axis correlation with high light efficiency and utilizes all the available space-bandwidth product of the liquid-crystal television.