We provide experimental measurement of the Mueller matricescorresponding to an on-state liquid-crystal-on-silicon display as a functionof the addressed voltage. The polar decomposition of the Mueller matricesdetermines the polarization properties of the device in terms of adiattenuation, a retardance and a depolarization effect. Although thediattenuation effect is shown to be negligible for the display, the behavior ofthe degree of polarization as a function of the input polarization state showsa maximum coupling of linearly polarized light into unpolarized light ofabout 10%. Concerning the retardation effect, we find that the displaybehaves as a retarder with a fast-axis orientation and a retardance angle thatare voltage-dependent. The above decomposition provides a convenientframework to optimize the optical response of the display for achieving aphase-mostly modulation regime. To this end, the display is sandwichedbetween a polarization state generator and a polarization state analyzer.Laboratory results for a commercial panel show a phase modulation depthof 360º at 633 nm with a residual intensity variation lower than 6 %
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