No abstract

Generation of optical vortices is described in cholesteric liquid crystals with a singular point in the spatial distribution of a helix phase. The phenomenon uses the fact that a Bragg reflected light phase varies in proportion to the spatial phase of the helix, both at normal and oblique incidences. Our proposal enables high-efficiency, polychromatic generation of optical vortices without the need of a cumbersome fabrication process and fine-tuning.

Patterned cholesteric liquid crystals enable the fabrication of circular-polarization sensitive, re ective di ractive optical elements based on Bragg re ection. Here we report the fabrication of large-angle re ective deector, which show de ection angles as large as 48.9°. The devices are fabricated by polarization holography, whereby two orthogonal circular polarized beams are superimposed on a photoalignment layer to create a linear modulation of the orientational easy axis. The devices show high circular-polarization extinction ratios, making them potentially useful as functional re ectors and polarization splitters.

No abstract

Recent advances in nanofabrication techniques are opening new frontiers in holographic devices, with the capability to integrate various optical functions in a single device. However, while most efficient holograms are achieved in reflection-mode configurations, they are in general opaque because of the reflective substrate that must be used, and therefore, have limited applicability. Here, we present a semi-transparent, reflective computer-generated hologram that is circularly-polarization dependent, and reconstructs different wavefronts when viewed from different sides. The integrated functionality is realized using a single thin-film of liquid crystal with a self-organized helical structure that Bragg reflects circularly-polarized light over a certain band of wavelengths. Asymmetry depending on the viewing side is achieved by exploiting the limited penetration depth of light in the helical structure as well as the nature of liquid crystals to conform to different orientational patterns imprinted on the two substrates sandwiching the material. Also, because the operation wavelength is determined by the reflection band position, pseudo-color holograms can be made by simply stacking layers with different designs. The unique characteristics of this hologram may find applications in polarization-encoded security holograms and see-through holographic signage where different information need to be displayed depending on the viewing direction.