An electro-optically controlled liquid crystal diffraction grating

Abstract

A structure for an electro-optically controlled liquid crystal diffraction grating is proposed, which can dramatically simplify the fabrication process of liquid crystal optical gratings. The structure consists of two alternating stripes. Each stripe is a hybrid liquid crystal cell with adjacent stripes oriented perpendicularly. This kind of electro-optically controlled diffraction grating in principle gives 100% diffraction efficiency and no polarization direction dependence. The detailed fabrication process is presented.