Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Dammann Grating by Patterned Photoalignment
Fan Fan,
Lishuang Yao,
Xiaoqian Wang,
Liangyu Shi,
Abhishek K. Srivastava,
Vladimir G. Chigrinov,
Hoi-Sing Kwok,
Shuangchun Wen
Affiliations
Fan Fan
Key Laboratory for Micro-/Nano-Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Lishuang Yao
State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China
Xiaoqian Wang
Physics Department, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
Liangyu Shi
Partner State Key Laboratory (PSKL) on Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Abhishek K. Srivastava
Partner State Key Laboratory (PSKL) on Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Vladimir G. Chigrinov
Partner State Key Laboratory (PSKL) on Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Hoi-Sing Kwok
Partner State Key Laboratory (PSKL) on Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Shuangchun Wen
Key Laboratory for Micro-/Nano-Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
In this article, a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) dammann grating (DG) is demonstrated based on the patterned photoalignment technology. By applying low electric field (10 V) on the FLC DG, the grating can switch between a diffractive state with 7 × 7 optical spots array and a non-diffractive state, depending on the polarity of electric field. The FLC DG shows very fast switching speed with switching on time and off time to be only 81 μs and 59 μs respectively. Comparing with other fast LC DGs such as the ones based on blue phase LC or dual-frequency LC, the switching speed of the proposed FLC DG is about one order faster, which provides great potential and perspective for the FLC DG to be applied in a broad range of optical applications such as optical communication and beam shaping.
