Abstract
In this article, we disclose a fork grating (FG) based on the photo-aligned ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC). The Digital Micro-mirror Device based system is used as a dynamic photomask to generated different holograms. Because of controlled anchoring energy, the photo alignment process offers optimal conditions for the multi-domain FLC alignment. Two different electro-optical modes namely DIFF/TRANS and DIFF/OFF switchable modes have been proposed where the diffraction can be switched either to no diffraction or to a completely black state, respectively. The FLC FG shows high diffraction efficiency and fast response time of 50µs that is relatively faster than existing technologies. Thus, the FLC FG may pave a good foundation toward optical vertices generation and manipulation that could find applications in a variety of devices.
Highlights
Optical vortices have attracted attention and have been extensively studied during the past two decades [1,2,3,4]
The diffraction profile of fabricated fork grating (FG) can be different depending on the phase retardation and mutual orientation of the easy axis in the two domains
To study the diffraction profile of the fabricated FG, a square wave electric field has been applied to the electrically suppressed helix FLC (ESHFLC) FG cell, which was placed between the crossed polarizers
Summary
Optical vortices have attracted attention and have been extensively studied during the past two decades [1,2,3,4]. Raszewski, “Generating electrically tunable optical vortices by a liquid crystal cell with patterned electrode,” Appl. G. White, “Generation of optical phase singularities by computer-generated holograms,” Opt. Lett. D. Lavrentovich, “Optical vortices generated by dislocations in a cholesteric liquid crystal,” Opt. Lett.
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