Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.453, 293-300, 2006
Electrically and optically controllable liquid crystal grating with a patterned surface-command layer
We propose a liquid crystal (LC) binary grating that can be controlled both electrically and optically in a simple scheme. The optical control scheme is obtained through the surface-induced reorientation of the LC molecules on a patterned surface-command layer by a single pump irradiation. The electrical control of the diffraction efficiency is achieved through the change in the phase retardation by the application of a bias voltage for given optically induced LC director distribution. In a coupled scheme of the optical and electrical control, the diffraction efficiency can be easily optimized.
Keywords:liquid crystal binary grating;optical control scheme;single pump;surface-induced reorientation