Abstract
Liquid crystals can be photoaligned with a single nanosecond pulse acting on thin photoanisotropic coatings on the cell substrates. This phenomenon was demonstrated for pulses of 532 nm and 355 nm wavelengths (second and the third harmonics of a Nd:YAG laser). Direct printing of liquid crystal cycloidal diffractive waveplates and diffractive waveplate lenses characterized by high spatial frequencies required only a mJ energy. The liquid crystal alignment dynamics reveal a fast component related to photoalignment of molecules within the photoanisotropic layer and a slower component related to alignment of the liquid crystal within the cell.
Highlights
Diffractive waveplates have resulted in a breakthrough in optics and photonic applications by enabling the reproduction of all classic functions of conventional refractive optics instead using thin film coatings [1,2,3]
A new breakthrough enabled by 4G optics, the fabrication of optical components with a single nanosecond pulse, is explored
The photoalignment dynamics were tested in The planar aligned nematic cells one or both substrates coated with a solution was spin-coated on glass one or both substrates coated with a PAAD layer
Summary
Diffractive waveplates (the fourth generation of optics) have resulted in a breakthrough in optics and photonic applications by enabling the reproduction of all classic functions of conventional refractive optics instead using thin film coatings [1,2,3]. A variety of optical components can be produced with a single optical recording system, using coating techniques (including inkjet, spin, spray, and even dip coating) instead of complex subtractive techniques like polishing, without the need for high temperature processes, and on the second to minute timescale. This capability is extremely important for large optics where just cooling down of the glass blanks for mirrors can take months. Planar-to-twist photoinduced transformation of a nematic LC revealed the fast, as well as slow, components in the dynamics relative to the orientation process within the photoalignment layer and within the LC
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