Creating radial refractive index patterns in liquid crystal material
OwnerJames Bailey, May Wheeler +1inventors
InventorsJames Bailey, May Wheeler, James Harding
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Abstract
A liquid crystal device comprising at least one liquid crystal cell, the liquid crystal cell comprising first and second half-cells and liquid crystal material contained between the first and second half-cells; the first and/or second half-cells comprising a first electrode pattern for creating a first radial refractive index pattern in a first region of the liquid crystal material, and a second electrode pattern for creating a second radial refractive index pattern at least partly in the first region of the liquid crystal material; and the liquid crystal device being switchable between activating the first electrode pattern and activating the second electrode pattern.
Claims27
A liquid crystal device comprising at least one liquid crystal cell, the liquid crystal cell having first and second half-cells and liquid crystal material contained between the first and second half-cells, the first and/or second half-cells comprising a first electrode pattern for creating a first radial refractive index pattern in a first region of the liquid crystal material, and a second electrode pattern for creating a second radial refractive index pattern at least partly in the first region of the liquid crystal material, and the liquid crystal device being switchable between activating the first electrode pattern and activating the second electrode pattern.
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An assembly comprising:
- a liquid crystal device, the liquid crystal device comprising a liquid crystal cell having first and second half-cells and liquid crystal material contained between the first and second half-cells, the first and/or second half-cells comprising a first electrode pattern for creating a first radial refractive index pattern in a first region of the liquid crystal material, and a second electrode pattern for creating a second radial refractive index pattern at least partly in the first region of the liquid crystal material, the liquid crystal cell being switchable between activating the first electrode pattern and activating the second electrode pattern;
- and
- at least one further optical element.
An apparatus comprising:
- a liquid crystal cell comprising first and second half-cells and liquid crystal material contained between the first and second half-cells, the first and/or second half-cells comprising a first electrode pattern for creating a first radial refractive index pattern in a first region of the liquid crystal material, and a second electrode pattern for creating a second radial refractive index pattern at least partly in the first region of the liquid crystal material;
- at least one processor;
- and
- at least one storage comprising instructions, the instructions configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to switch between:
- activation of the first electrode pattern;
- and
- activation of the second electrode pattern.
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A method of operating a liquid crystal device comprising at least one liquid crystal cell, the liquid crystal cell comprising first and second half-cells and liquid crystal material contained between the first and second half-cells;
- the first and/or second half-cells comprising a first electrode pattern for creating a first radial refractive index pattern in a first region of the liquid crystal material, and a second electrode pattern for creating a second radial refractive index pattern at least partly in the first region of the liquid crystal material, the method comprising switching between (i) applying a potential difference across electrical terminals connected to the first electrode pattern and (ii) applying a potential difference across electric terminals connected to the second electrode pattern.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.