Realize high-speed megapixel spatial light modulation

Determine how to build and demonstrate a spatial light modulator that controls a megapixel-scale number of spatial modes at modulation rates substantially beyond the kilohertz range (e.g., gigahertz rates), enabling applications such as imaging through scattering media, quantum computing with cold atoms and ions, and high-speed machine vision.

Background

Commercial spatial light modulators typically provide megapixel-scale apertures but are limited to approximately kilohertz operational speeds, constraining applications that require gigahertz-rate modulation. The paper proposes a Lithium Niobate guided-mode resonance modulator integrated with a CMOS backplane as a blueprint toward overcoming this limitation, but achieving simultaneous high speed and megapixel-scale control remains explicitly noted as an open challenge.

This challenge involves materials, device physics, and large-area integration: maximizing electro-optic tuning efficiency in thin-film Lithium Niobate while maintaining high-Q resonances and scalable CMOS addressing, and overcoming routing and fabrication constraints to deliver free-form, large-area, high-speed modulation.