Fast switching beam steering based on ferroelectric liquid crystal phase shutter and polarisation grating

ABSTRACT

We report on fast-switching and high-efficient optical beam steering based on a polymerisable liquid crystal polarisation grating (PG) in combination with ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) phase shutter. The PG was fabricated in a convenient single-step holographic exposure process using photo-sensitive azo-dye material as alignment layer for liquid crystal (LC) director. A binary electro-optical FLC was employed for circular polarisation selection, which enables the electro-tunable steering of the combined system. The efficiency of 95.7% with 82 μs switching time is obtained for 1064 nm laser. This work provides a versatile candidate for non-mechanical beam steering devices.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Ferroelectric liquid crystal
• photoalignment
• diffractive optical element
• beam steering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The supports of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61875004, 61405009, 61204063) are gratefully acknowledged.