Affiliation:
1. School of Materials Science and Engineering State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 P. R. China
2. Department of Chemistry College of Science China Agricultural University Beijing 100083 P. R. China
3. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology SKLADT Clear Water Bay Kowloon Hong Kong
4. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronics Technology Ministry of Education Beijing University of Technology Beijing 100124 P. R. China
Abstract
AbstractStructured light refers to the light field tailored by various degrees of freedom including intensity, phase, and polarization states in both spatial and temporal domains, which may greatly vitalize the technologies in both optics, such as the next‐generation optical communication as well as subwavelength imaging and the materials science in both fabrication and characterization. The structured characteristics of the structure light need materials also with structured optical properties that can generate or manipulate structured light in a straightforward way, which can be well satisfied by liquid crystals, a soft mater that can self‐assemble into tunable ordered structures through external stimuli. This review summarizes the research progress of the liquid crystal‐based devices used in structured light generations and modulations, including the well‐established techniques in the market, like the spatial light modulator, q‐plate and the liquid crystal integrated optical metasurfaces. Especially, light‐matter interactions are discussed from the topological view of both the structured light and the liquid crystal structures. Such a perfect matching in topology makes the liquid crystal a promising star together with structured light in future optic and photonic technologies.
Funder
National Key Research and Development Program of China
National Natural Science Foundation of China