Polarization Grating of Photoaligned Liquid Crystals with Oppositely Twisted Domain Structures

ABSTRACT

We demonstrate a polarization grating of a liquid crystal (LC) in an oppositely twisted configuration using the photo-alignment technique. The polarization-modulated nature of the LC polarization grating is produced by a single-masking process with two step-exposure of a linearly polarized ultraviolet light. The LC polarization grating presented here produces high diffraction efficiency and polarization independence.

Keywords:

• binary configuration
• photoalignment
• polarization grating
• twisted nematic liquid crystal

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea through the 21st Century Frontier Research and Development Program at the Information Display Center.