Liquid crystal for light modulation
AssigneeOxford University Innovation Limited
InventorsJohn Sanford O'neill, Patrick Salter, Stephen Morris, Steve Elston, Martin Booth
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Abstract
A liquid crystal device (400) is provided comprising: a liquid crystal layer having a thickness and comprising: a liquid crystal material; and a plurality of polymer structures (414a, 414b) comprising polymerised liquid crystal material. Each polymer structure (414a, 414b) is located at a different depth in the thickness of the liquid crystal layer. Electrodes are provided configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal layer. Each polymer structure (414a, 414b) has a different selected locked-in liquid crystal state.
Claims20
A liquid crystal device comprising:
- a liquid crystal layer having a thickness and comprising:
- a liquid crystal material;
- and
- a plurality of polymer structures comprising polymerised liquid crystal material, each polymer structure located at a different depth in the thickness of the liquid crystal layer;
- and
- electrodes configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal layer;
- wherein each polymer structure has a selected locked-in liquid crystal state;
- wherein the polymer structures are arranged to provide different thicknesses of polymerised liquid crystal with a common director orientation at different lateral or radial positions in the device, the different thicknesses configured to modulate a phase of light by a different amount so as to provide a variable phase change at different areas of the device.
A liquid crystal device comprising:
- a liquid crystal layer having a thickness and comprising:
- a liquid crystal material;
- and
- a plurality of polymer structures comprising polymerised liquid crystal material, each polymer structure located at a different depth in the thickness of the liquid crystal layer;
- and
- electrodes configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal layer;
- wherein each polymer structure has a different selected locked-in liquid crystal state,
- wherein each of the different liquid crystal states of the polymer structures corresponds to a state of the liquid crystal material at a different pre-determined electric field strength.
A liquid crystal device comprising:
- a liquid crystal layer having a thickness and comprising:
- a liquid crystal material;
- and
- a plurality of polymer structures comprising polymerised liquid crystal material, each polymer structure located at a different depth in the thickness of the liquid crystal layer;
- and
- electrodes configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal layer;
- wherein each polymer structure has a selected locked-in liquid crystal state,
- wherein at least one of the polymer structures is or comprises a diffractive optical element.
A method of electrically controlling spatial phase modulation of light incident on a liquid crystal device comprising:
- a liquid crystal layer having a thickness and comprising:
- a liquid crystal material;
- and
- a plurality of polymer structures comprising polymerised liquid crystal material, each polymer structure located at a different depth in the thickness of the liquid crystal layer;
- and
- electrodes configured to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal layer;
- wherein each polymer structure has a selected locked-in liquid crystal state;
- wherein the polymer structures are arranged to provide different thicknesses of polymerised liquid crystal with a common director orientation at different lateral or radial positions in the device, the different thicknesses configured to modulate a phase of light by a different amount so as to provide a variable phase change at different areas of the device,
- the method comprising:
- applying an electric field across the liquid crystal layer to selectively control a spatial phase modulation of light incident on the device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.