Optical Shutters
MS Series
Maximum switching speed performance
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| The MS Series Optical Shutters offer significant performance
advantages in applications demanding the maximum switching speed. |
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The MS Series offers a significant performance advantage in Optical Shutter
applications demanding the fastest optical response times, typically ranging
from 15 – 150 µs. Attractive for their high switching speeds,
MS Optical Shutters require a dc-balanced ac drive signal, typically resulting
in 50% duty cycle operation. Minimum drive voltage levels are required;
as low as ± 5 V ac is sufficient for most applications.
An Optical
Shutter is a two-state device used to rapidly open and close a light
path (from lens to film, for example). Optical Shutters are typically used
to control the amount of time that a light-sensitive material is exposed
to optical radiation.
Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) manufactures and sells liquid crystal based Optical
Shutters for applications requiring active timing control of beam transmittance.
Key features of our Optical Shutters include high-speed binary operation, high
purity linear polarized output, and maximum extinction ratio performance. Since
these devices are solid state - undesirable mechanical motion, associated noise,
and vibration problems are eliminated.
Device Construction
MS Series Optical Shutters begin with polished, optically flat windows. After
deposition of a transparent conductive coating layer (indium-tin oxide or ITO,
typically) these window substrates are then evenly covered with a polymer layer,
which is then rubbed or buffed, forming tiny microgrooves in the polymer layer.
These microgrooves provide the alignment directionality critical in liquid crystal
device production.
The coated and buffed windows are then spaced a few microns apart. The cavity
between substrates is now filled with liquid crystal material and sealed.
High extinction linear polarizers are crossed, and then laminated between glass
substrates. External glass surfaces are usually coated with a broadband antireflection
coating, to maximize transmittance. With this crossed polarizer orientation,
MS Series Optical Shutters exhibit full optical transmittance at the zero voltage
state. Minimum transmission occurs at the full drive voltage level, as specified
with your device.
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