Ferroelectric liquid crystal dammann grating by patterned photoalignment

Abstract

In this article, a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) dammann grating (DG) is demonstrated based on the patterned photoalignment technology. By applying low electric field (10 V) on the FLC DG, the grating can switch between a diffractive state with 7 × 7 optical spots array and a non-diffractive state, depending on the polarity of electric field. The FLC DG shows very fast switching speed with switching on time and off time to be only 81 µs and 59 µs respectively. Comparing with other fast LC DGs such as the ones based on blue phase LC or dual-frequency LC, the switching speed of the proposed FLC DG is about one order faster, which provides great potential and perspective for the FLC DG to be applied in a broad range of optical applications such as optical communication and beam shaping.