Finite-Difference Time-Domain Optical Calculations of Polymer-Liquid Crystal Composite Electrodiffractive Device

Abstract

A polymer-wall-confined switchable diffractive liquid crystal light valve is investigated by two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) optical simulation and liquid crystal director field calculation for the first time. Under optimized conditions, the calculated liquid crystal device phase profile is close to the ideal phase profile with which high diffraction efficiency is attained. The numerically calculated normalized brightness versus device pixel size and the numbers of turned "ON" pixels are provided. The results indicate that this kind of liquid crystal phase modulator is a very promising candidate for high-resolution, high-brightness, low-voltage-driving and low-cost projection displays.