Efficient beam steering in the 1.55 micron window using large-tilt FLC one-dimensional array

The recent development of wavelength division multiplexing requires novel transparent optical switches with moderate reconfiguration rates (typically the ms) for management and safety requirements at the optical -wavelength- level. One important fonction in such an optical switch is beam steering in the infrared 1.55 μm region. For that purpose, we propose to design a ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator (FLC SLM) acting as a programmable diffraction grating. Futhermore, a large-tilt angle FLC is used to make the device insensitive to the polarisation of the input wavefront. Prior to the realisation of the optical swich, we present here an experimental characterisation of the FLC beam deflector.