Liquid crystal cell for space-borne laser rangefinder to space mission applications

Liquid crystal cell (LCC) for space-borne laser rangefinder to space mission applications was developed, manufactured and tested under cooperation between Military University of Technology (MUT) in Poland and Vavilov State Optical Institute (Vavilov SOI) in Russia. LCC operates in twisted nematic mode, commutating the polarization plane of a laser beam working at 1.064 μm and the energy density not smaller than 0,15 J/cm2 at the pulse duration about 8 ns. The transmission of LCC is not smaller than 95% at the aperture diameter not less than 15 mm. Switching on and switching off times in a 2.5-μm thick LCC driven by voltage of 10 V are not larger than 0.7 ms and 7 ms, respectively, in the operating temperature range from 20°C to 40°C. The LCCs developed in MUT were positively tested under space requirements in Vavilov SOI.