Design and fabrication of 2 kHz nematic liquid crystal variable retarder with reflection mode

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a simple method of designing a high-speed liquid crystal variable retarder (LCVR) with reflection mode. First, a series of simple formulas is provided for analysing the effects of tilt incidence and birefringence of the liquid crystal on the phase retardation and response time of the LCVR. Then, a reflective LCVR is fabricated to validate the theoretical analysis. Measured results show that the response speed can reach 2.7 kHz with a phase retardation of 1 λ. Furthermore, the theoretical curve is close to the measured curve while the incident angle is less than 10°. However, the theoretical and measured values show a considerable difference under a large incident angle. This problem is discussed, and a modified method is given. This work is helpful for the design and fabrication of high-speed LCVR.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Variable retarder
• reflection
• tilt incidence
• high speed

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Jiangsu Key Disciplines of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (No. 20168765) and the State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics (No. M200-D-1716).