Flexible and wide-range tuning of liquid crystal polarization grating period based on single and interference-free exposure

Abstract

We propose a period control method of liquid crystal polarization grating (LCPG) based on an nterference-free and single exposure process. By adjusting three parameters of exposure setup, including incident angle of exposure beam, wedge angle of birefringent prism and tilt angle of the sample, polarization distribution of the exposure beam is changed. The spatially variant polarization of the exposure beam is transferred to liquid crystal (LC) molecules by an azo-dye photo-sensitive layer. Consequently, the LCPG with the target period is obtained. The proposed method has high flexibility and a wide range of period adjustment covering several microns to more than thousands of microns according to calculated results. Experimental results fit well with calculations. The LCPGs with different values of period from 4.5µm to more than 200µm have been realized experimentally. The proposed interference-free method would accelerate the application of LCPGs with a robust and simple fabrication process.