Abstract

A polymer-wall-confined transmissive switchable liquid crystal grating is proposed and investigated by two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain optical calculation and liquid-crystal-director calculation, to our knowledge for the first time. The results show how to obtain optimized conditions for high diffraction efficiency by adjusting the liquid crystal parameters, grating geometric structure, and applied voltages. The light propagation direction and efficiency can be accurately calculated and visualized concurrently.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

Finite-difference time-domain simulation of a liquid-crystal optical phased array

Xinghua Wang, Bin Wang, Philip J. Bos, James E. Anderson, John J. Pouch, and Felix A. Miranda
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 22(2) 346-354 (2005)

Light propagation in variable-refractive-index materials with liquid-crystal-infiltrated microcavities

Bin Wang, Philip J. Bos, and Charles D. Hoke
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 20(11) 2123-2130 (2003)

Electro-optic properties of switchable gratings made of polymer and nematic liquid-crystal slices

A. d’Alessandro, R. Asquini, C. Gizzi, R. Caputo, C. Umeton, A. Veltri, and A. V. Sukhov
Opt. Lett. 29(12) 1405-1407 (2004)

Computational studies of optical textures of twist disclination loops in liquid-crystal films by using the finite-difference time-domain method

Dae Kun Hwang and Alejandro D. Rey
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 23(2) 483-496 (2006)

Defect-free switchable phase grating

Garry A. Lester, Stephen J. Coulston, and Adrian M. Strudwick
Appl. Opt. 45(1) 110-116 (2006)