Optical system comprising a spatial light modulator

An optical system (10) comprising:

• a light emitting source (11) for generating an incident light beam (12);
• a first spatial light modulator (13) comprising an array of controllable elements adapted for generating a modulated light beam (17) by diffracting the incident light beam (12), the modulated light beam (17) comprising a modulated part and an unmodulated “zero order” part, the modulated part carrying an image to be projected into a replay volume (18);
• a control unit (20) for applying a control signal to the controllable elements so as to control the modulated light beam (17) generated by the controllable elements, wherein the optical system (10) further comprises a perturbing aberrant optical element (30) for introducing optical aberrations in the incident light beam (12) and/or the modulated light beam (17), so as to spread the unmodulated “zero order” part of the modulated light beam (17) in the replay volume (18) where the image carried by the modulated part is projected, with a maximum intensity of the unmodulated “zero order” part in the replay volume (18) being less than a maximum intensity of the modulated part in all the replay volume (18) where the image carried by the modulated part is projected, wherein the perturbing aberrant optical element (30) generates distortions in the image carried by the modulated part to be projected;
• and
• a second spatial light modulator, or
• at least one cylindrical lens having a cylindrical surface, for spreading the incident light beam (12) and/or the modulated light beam (17) according to a spreading direction, wherein the control signal comprises an image signal component carrying data representative of the image to be projected and a correction signal component representative of a correction pattern for correcting the distortions generated by the perturbing aberrant optical element (30) in the image carried by the modulated part to be projected, the optical system presenting a focal plane only for the modulated part of the modulated light beam, and not for the unmodulated “zero order” part, after correction by the first spatial light modulator (13).