Liquid-crystal light valves

Liquid-crystal light valves have been built in which a relatively weak-signal image controls the flow of light to a much brighter projected image. The brightness of the projection light is limited only by heating in the light valve, and so great optical gain is possible. Brightness gains of 10¿20 have been achieved with 30¿W/cm2 of signal light at an efficiency of 15%. Resolutions of 5 line pairs per mm on the light valve and contrast ratios of 10:1 have been obtained, with a response time of about 0.1 s. With improvements, resolutions of 10¿20 line pairs per mm relatively fast response and sensitivity to signal-light levels of nW/cm2 may be expected.