Abstract

Liquid crystal Fabry–Perot tunable filters are investigated in detail, with special attention to their manufacturability, design, tolerances, and polarization independence. The calculations were performed both numerically and analytically using the $4\times 4$ propagation matrix method. A simplified analytic expression for the propagation matrix is derived for the case of nematic LC in the homogeneous geometry. At normal incidence, it is shown that one can use the $2\times 2$ Abeles matrix method; however, at oblique incidence, the $4\times 4$ matrix method is needed. The effects of dephasing originating from wedge or noncollimated light beams are investigated. Due to the absorption of the indium tin oxide layer and as an electrode, its location within the mirror multilayered stack is very important. The optimum location is found to be within the stack and not on its top or bottom. Finally, we give more detailed experimental results of our polarization-independent configuration that uses polarization diversity with a Wollaston prism.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

Switchable polarization-independent liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot filter

Enkh-Amgalan Dorjgotov, Achintya K. Bhowmik, and Philip J. Bos
Appl. Opt. 48(1) 74-79 (2009)

Polarization independent Fabry-Pérot filter based on polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals with fast response time

Yan-Han Chen, Chun-Ta Wang, Chin-Ping Yu, and Tsung-Hsien Lin
Opt. Express 19(25) 25441-25446 (2011)

Electrically tunable infrared filter based on the liquid crystal Fabry–Perot structure for spectral imaging detection

Huaidong Zhang, Afzal Muhammmad, Jun Luo, Qing Tong, Yu Lei, Xinyu Zhang, Hongshi Sang, and Changsheng Xie
Appl. Opt. 53(25) 5632-5639 (2014)

Enhanced performance configuration for fast-switching deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal continuous tunable Lyot filter

A. M. W. Tam, G. Qi, A. K. Srivastava, X. Q. Wang, F. Fan, V. G. Chigrinov, and H. S. Kwok
Appl. Opt. 53(17) 3787-3795 (2014)

Electrically tunable infrared filter based on a cascaded liquid-crystal Fabry–Perot for spectral imaging detection

Jiuning Lin, Qing Tong, Yu Lei, Zhaowei Xin, Dong Wei, Xinyu Zhang, Jing Liao, Haiwei Wang, and Changsheng Xie
Appl. Opt. 56(7) 1925-1929 (2017)