Holographically generated twisted nematic liquid crystal gratings

Abstract

A reflection holographic method is introduced to fabricate an electro-optically tunable twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal (LC) grating, forgoing the geometrical drawing. The photoisomerization process occurring on the LC alignment layers of an LC cell in the reflection holographic configuration gives a control over the twist angle, and the grating spacing is determined by the slant angle of reflection holographic configuration. The resulting diffraction grating is in a structure of a reverse TN LC, permitting a polarization-independent diffraction efficiency. The electro-optic tunability of the diffraction efficiency is also demonstrated. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.