Definition
Plain language
A programmable screen that reshapes a beam of light pixel by pixel.
As stated in the literature
An array of independently controllable optical elements imposing a chosen phase or amplitude pattern on a light field; in the Qiushi optics work it offers an astronomically large control space the AI must navigate.
Also called: SLM
Why it matters: Its enormous range of possible patterns gives fine control over light, but also creates a vast space an AI must search to find the right setting.
For example, it acts like a programmable screen that can bend and reshape a laser beam pixel by pixel into a custom pattern.
Heard on the show
“The optical control space the system is working in — the spatial light modulator has more than two million pixels, each one capable of ten bits of phase control.”Episode 002 — An AI Ran a Real Optics Lab for 21 Hours and Found a Transformer-Shaped Pattern in Light