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

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.

Ferroelectric liquid crystal Pancharatnam-Berry lens with a fast control of output light's polarization-handedness.

We report the ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) Pancharatnam-Berry lenses (PBLs) with rapid transmittance tunability. The FLC PBLs were fabricated using a single-step holographic exposure system based on a spatial light modulator working as numerous polarization retarders, providing a simple way to fabricate FLC continuous aligning structures. A state-selection sector containing a binary FLC switch was utilized for fast changing input light's polarization handedness. Thus, when light passes through a FLC PBL, the output light's polarization handedness can be switched accordingly. In this case, FLC PBLs can function as concave/convex lenses with rapidly switching speed. Photo sensitive azo-dye material was used as the aligning layer for both FLC PBLs and FLC switches. The fabricated FLC PBLs and the FLC switches show fast switching-on times of 150µs and 50µs respectively. The FLC PBLs combining with the state-selection sector can have potential applications on varies displays and augmented reality.

Ferroelectric liquid crystal mediated fast switchable orbital angular momentum of light.

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light has been extensively studied during the past two decades. Till now, it is a formidable challenge to dynamically manipulate OAM in fast switching speed, good beam quality and low power consumption. Here, an alternative strategy is proposed through the combination of the uniformly-aligned ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) and the space-variant photo-patterned nematic liquid crystal. Owing to the excellent electro-optical properties of the adopted FLC, the high-performance electrical switching of OAM, especially, its helicity and the superposed state (i.e., the cylindrical vector beam), can be realized in good quality and high efficiency. The symmetric switching time is down to 120 µs even at a very low driving voltage of 1.7 V/µm. This supplies a practical and universal method towards high-frequency manipulation of OAM and other structured beams.

Interference-free and single exposure to generate continuous cycloidal alignment for large-area liquid crystal devices.

An approach for generating cycloidal pattern of liquid crystal (LC) molecules based on interference-free and single exposure is illustrated. The spatial manipulation of polarization state is achieved using birefringent prism and wave plates. And then, the spatially variant polarization of exposure beam is transferred to LC molecules by azo-dye photo-sensitive layer. Consequently, the LC samples fabricated shows periodically cycloidal texture and diffraction efficiency more than 99%. The measured period Λ and diffraction angle are in good consistency with theoretical results. Thus, this exposure method provides an effective and robust way for fabricating large-area LC elements, therefore paving the way for widespread applications of high-performance diffractive LC devices.

Two-dimensional liquid crystal polarization grating via linearly polarized light modified multi-beam polarization interferometry.

Holographic lithography is widely used as an effective approach for two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal fabrication. However, for the fabrication of 2D polarization structures based on photoaligned liquid crystals (LCs), holographic lithography method is limited. The fabrication requires full coverage of light intensity, 2D chiral distribution and continuously varying polarization direction, which could be hardly guaranteed by multi-beam interference of circularly polarized light (CPL). Herein, we introduce a linearly polarized light (LPL) into a three-CPL interference configuration to improve the interference field and fulfill the critical requirement. The introduced LPL intensity is chosen to be 1/5 of the CPL to guarantee both full coverage of light intensity and well photoalignment defined LC directors. Moreover, the introduction of the weak LPL into multiple CPL interference is shown to give little disturbance to the desired diffraction properties.

Low-voltage-driven smart glass based on micro-patterned liquid crystal Fresnel lenses.

We disclose a method of fabricating a low-voltage-driven smart glass based on micro-patterned liquid crystal (LC) Fresnel lenses and implement three proof-of-concept prototypes. Distinct from the conventional LC-based smart windows with the scattering state, the prominence of our proposed LC smart glass in blurry state under both normal and oblique observations stems from the image distortion caused by LC Fresnel lenses. In addition, the high transmittance (>90%) in clear state is obtained by applying a low voltage of 2 V to each prototype. Moreover, by elaborating the design of the LC smart glass, the reversed switching states [i.e., a clear (voltage OFF) state and a blurry (voltage ON) state] and fast switching time can be simultaneously achieved.

Photoalignment-induced two-dimensional liquid crystal polarization structure via multi-beam polarization interferometry.

A two-dimensional (2D) pure polarization pattern via four-beam polarization interferometry of circularly polarized beams is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally. The polarization orientation of the interference pattern is recorded by an azobenzene photoalignment layer and transferred to liquid crystal (LC), enabling the fabrication of a 2D liquid crystal (LC) chiral structure. This structure behaves as a 2D LC polarization grating (LCPG) that can generate multiple polarization-selective diffraction beams of orthogonal polarization states with high efficiency. This 2D LCPG provides an effective way to distribute an optical signal into multiple receivers by both incidence polarization control and external electric field, therefore offering potential applications on multi-channel optical communication and information processing.

High Photoinduced Ordering and Controllable Photostability of Hydrophilic Azobenzene Material Based on Relative Humidity.

Azobenzene materials provide an effective way for liquid crystal (LC) alignment besides traditional rubbing technology. A strong relationship between relative humidity (RH) and the photoalignment quality of hydrophilic azobenzene dye brilliant yellow (BY) has been investigated. Good photoalignment quality can only be ensured at about 40% RH or below. On the other hand, the photostability of the alignment layer is also influenced dramatically by RH. The rewritability can be guaranteed at extremely low RH (≤10%). It is gradually lost with increasing RH, and the alignment layer becomes photostable against further light exposure when at 40% RH or above. Therefore, the BY photoalignment layer can be tuned from rewritable to photostable by simply adjusting RH, and thus multistep photopatterned alignments can be obtained and reserved based on this method. Similar properties are also expected for other hydrophilic azobenzene photoalignment materials, where the specific RH values may vary correspondingly. The reason is due to the strong intermolecular interaction and J-aggregate formation of BY molecules with water insertion. Moreover, the lyotropic LC formed by J-aggregated BY molecules in aqueous solution is reported here.

Novel Photoalignment Method Based on Low-Molecular-Weight Azobenzene Dyes and Its Application for High-Dichroic-Ratio Polarizers.

Photoalignment is a simple technique for the manipulation of molecular orientations, which has been widely used in liquid crystal displays. Here, we propose a novel photoalignment method, in which an azobenzene dye thin film is deposited by thermal evaporation and in situ exposed to linearly polarized light simultaneously. We obtain polarizers with a dichroic ratio of up to 62, which is the highest value ever realized by a photoalignment method. Moreover, the polarizing thin film has a thickness of just 200 nm, compatible with flexible substrates, making it perfect for use as a dichroic polarizer in ultrathin and flexible displays.

Photoaligned Nanorod Enhancement Films with Polarized Emission for Liquid-Crystal-Display Applications.

Semiconductor nanorods (NR) emit polarized light, which is expected to bring manifold benefits, in terms of brightness and color enhancement, for modern liquid-crystal displays (LCD). In this regard, photoaligned nanorod enhancement films (NREF) for color and polarization conversion for LCD backlights are introduced here. The photoinduced anchoring forces, by the photoalignment layer, stimulate well-ordered self-assembly of NR in the thin polymer films. Green and red emitting NR with a quantum yield of ≈80% are aligned unidirectionally and in-plane, showing a polarization ratio of >7:1 and a degree of polarization of >0.81. The photoalignment technique facilitates the fabrication of mixed and multiple stacked NREF for LCDs, which improves the color gamut and polarization efficiency, and is thus expected to increase the optical efficiency of conventional LCDs by ≈60%.

Exotic Property of Azobenzenesulfonic Photoalignment Material Based on Relative Humidity.

Azobenzene photoalignment materials are highly effective for liquid crystal alignment with high sensitivity and rewritability. A strong relationship between relative humidity and the alignment quality of a thin layer of azobenzenesulfonic dye has been investigated, where the photoinduced phase retardation, order parameter, and anchoring strength of the alignment layer are influenced dramatically by relative humidity. Our results provide fabrication guidance for the photoalignment process in both display and photonic applications. In addition, an exotic substantial ordering enhancement is observed by increasing the relative humidity without further light illumination, where the self-assembly of the photoaligned material incorporated with water molecules is the underlying reason for the enhanced high ordering (S > 0.8). Based on X-ray diffraction and depolarized optical microscopy observation, together with the photoalignment quality, a semicrystalline structure of the humidified azobenzenesulfonic material is proposed. The transition from amorphous solid at low relative humidity to semicrystal at high relative humidity provides a new perspective of understanding the hydrophilic photoalignment materials.

Photoinduced Micropattern Alignment of Semiconductor Nanorods with Polarized Emission in a Liquid Crystal Polymer Matrix.

Photoalignment technology provides high alignment quality with an exceptional control over the local director of liquid crystals. Because of the reorientation ability of sulfonic azo dye molecules, they offer high azimuthal and polar anchoring energy with a low pretilt angle for the orientation of liquid crystals and liquid crystal composites. In this work, we make use of this approach to align thin film composites of light-emitting semiconductor nanorods dispersed in a liquid crystal polymer into both one-dimensional and two-dimensional microscale patterns. After unidirectional alignment, the patterns are fabricated by a second irradiation with different polarization azimuth and the employment of a photomask. Fluorescence micrographs reveal the nanorod pattern alignment in domain sizes down to 2 µm. Apart from demonstrating the possibility of controlling the orientation of anisotropic nanocrystals with strongly polarized emission on microscopic scale, our results are promising for the fabrication of complex nanostructures for photonic applications.

Light-Driven Liquid Crystal Circular Dammann Grating Fabricated by a Micro-Patterned Liquid Crystal Polymer Phase Mask.

As one of the diffractive optical elements, circular Dammann grating has shown its excellent versatility in practical applications. The electrically switchable Dammann grating has been extensively investigated; however, the research on the optically tunable circular Dammann grating has received less attention and reports on this subject have been insufficient in the past decade. In this paper, three-order and eight-order binary-phase liquid crystal circular Dammann gratings with two mutually orthogonal photo-induced alignments in every two adjacent alignment domains, fabricated by a micro-patterned liquid crystal polymer phase mask, are proposed to generate annular uniform-intensity patterns in the far field. A simple maskless optical tuning of an eight-order liquid crystal circular Dammann grating is demonstrated by controlling the polarization of an ultraviolet light as well as the energy dose. The proposed liquid crystal circular Dammann gratings with high efficiencies and desirable uniformities exhibit outstanding optical as well as electrical tunabilities, enabling the widespread prospective applications in adaptive photonic chips stimulated flexibly by only light or by the combination of light and electric field.

Integrated and reconfigurable optical paths based on stacking optical functional films.

A strategy for integrated and reconfigurable optical paths based on stacking optical functional films is proposed. It is demonstrated by stacking two liquid crystal polymer q-plates and one quarter-wave plate for vector vortex beams generation. The topological charge and polarization order of generated vector vortex beams can be controlled independently by stacking and reordering different optical films with repeated adhesive ability. It supplies a low-cost, light-weight and versatile technique for reducing the volume of free-space optical system and has a great potential in optical researches and applications.

Complex Nanoscale-Ordered Liquid Crystal Polymer Film for High Transmittance Holographic Polarizer.

A special design of a complex-ordered liquid crystal polymer film is developed into a holographic polarizer. The holographic polarizer shows over 90% transmittance, which provides a simple solution to make LEDs polarized. Furthermore, the holographic polarizer exhibits intensity and polarization maintenance properties, which could be further developed for photonics applications.

Combination of Photoinduced Alignment and Self-Assembly to Realize Polarized Emission from Ordered Semiconductor Nanorods.

One-dimensional semiconductor nanorods are a very promising class of materials for applications in modern optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes, solar cells, displays, and lasers. Their ability to emit linearly polarized light is considered to simplify device structures and improve the overall efficiencies. To ensure macroscopic polarization in such devices, the biggest challenge is the long-range alignment of nanorods by controllable means. We propose a technique that combines photoinduced alignment with nanorod's self-assembly. With this approach, we are able to actively control the alignment directions of highly emissive semiconductor nanorods in both microscopic and macroscopic scale with the order parameter as high as 0.87. As a result, polarized emission has been achieved with the degree of polarization of 0.62. Furthermore, patterned alignment of nanorods with spatially varying local orientations has been realized to demonstrate the great flexibility of this approach. Besides opportunities for applications, our method of alignment offers insights into host-guest interactions governing self-assembly of colloidal nanocrystals within the host molecular matrix.

Optics of short-pitch deformed-helix ferroelectric liquid crystals: symmetries, exceptional points, and polarization-resolved angular patterns.

In order to explore electric-field-induced transformations of polarization singularities in the polarization-resolved angular (conoscopic) patterns emerging after deformed-helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (DHFLC) cells with subwavelength helix pitch, we combine the transfer matrix formalism with the results for the effective dielectric tensor of biaxial FLCs evaluated using an improved technique of averaging over distorted helical structures. Within the framework of the transfer matrix method, we deduce a number of symmetry relations and show that the symmetry axis of L lines (curves of linear polarization) is directed along the major in-plane optical axis which rotates under the action of the electric field. When the angle between this axis and the polarization plane of incident linearly polarized light is above its critical value, the C points (points of circular polarization) appear in the form of symmetrically arranged chains of densely packed star-monstar pairs. We also emphasize the role of phase singularities of a different kind and discuss the enhanced electro-optic response of DHFLCs near the exceptional point where the condition of zero-field isotropy is fulfilled.

Photo-aligned ferroelectric liquid crystals in microchannels.

In this Letter we disclose a method to realize a good alignment of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) in microchannels, based on photo-alignment. The sulfonic azo dye used in our research offers variable anchoring energy depending on the irradiation energy and thus provides good control on the FLC alignment in microchannels. The good FLC alignment has been observed only when anchoring energy normalized to the capillary diameter is less than the elastic energy of the FLC helix. The same approach can also be used for the different microstructures viz. photonic crystal fibers, microwaveguides, etc. which gives an opportunity for designing a photonic devices based on FLC.

Enhanced orientational Kerr effect in vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals.

We disclose the vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal whose Kerr constant (Kkerr≈130 nm/V2 at λ=543 nm) is around one order of magnitude higher than any other value previously reported for liquid crystalline structures. Under certain conditions, the phase modulation with ellipticity less than 0.05 over the range of continuous and hysteresis-free electric adjustment of the phase shift from zero to 2π has been obtained at subkilohertz frequency.

Patterned dual-layer achromatic micro-quarter-wave-retarder array for active polarization imaging.

In this paper, we present a liquid-crystal-polymer (LCP)-based dual-layer micro-quarter-wave-retarder (MQWR) array for active polarization image sensors. The proposed MQWRs, for the first time, enable the extraction of the incident light's circularly polarized components in the whole visible regime, which correspond to the fourth parameter of Stokes vector. Compared with the previous implementations, our proposed MQWRs feature high achromaticity, making their applications no longer limited to monochromatic illumination. In addition, the presented thin structure exhibits an overall thickness of 2.43µm, leading to greatly alleviated optical cross-talk between adjacent photo-sensing pixels. Moreover, the reported superior optical performance (e.g. minor transmittance, extinction ratio) validates our optical design and optimization of the proposed MQWRs. Furthermore, the demonstrated simple fabrication recipe offers a cost-effective solution for the monolithic integration between the proposed MQWR array and the commercial solid-state image sensors, which makes the multi-spectral full Stokes polarization imaging system on a single chip feasible.