title: Electrical modulation of diffractive structures.
abstract: We present an experimental demonstration of two new methods for electronically modulating diffractive structures. The first involves the creation of periodic displacement of a liquid-air interface by application of a spatially modulated electric field produced by an array of electrodes. The second method also uses an electrode array but creates a diffraction grating by selectively attracting and repelling electrophoretic particles in a dielectric fluid. Potential areas of application of these techniques include controllable holography and wavelength division multiplexing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. vkwong@physics.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Vincent H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Kwong
authors.forename: Michele A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mossman
authors.forename: Lorne A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Whitehead