1. Photo-alignment of orientationally patterned surface for disclination generation and optical applications
- Author
-
Wang, Mengfei, Wang
- Subjects
- Physics, Optics, Liquid crystal, photo-alignment, topological defect, disclination lines, Pancharatnam-Berry phase, geometric phase device
- Abstract
This is an experimental work of liquid crystal physics. Our primary goal is to create arbitrary molecular orientations on the surface imposed with photo-alignment technique, which is considered a cost-effective, non-contact surface alignment technique with higher degrees of freedom and ease of operation.In this thesis, we propose and demonstrate a novel approach for orientationally patterned surfaces with photo-alignment, for disclination generation, as well as optical applications. With conflicted orientationally patterned surfaces, we are able to create half-integer disclinations from one surface, which extends into the bulk and back to the same surface. Pancharatnam-Berry Phase (PBP), also called geometric phase, arises from the continuously spatial variation of polarization directions. By engineering the surface pattern with cyclic orientation variations, we generate half-integer disclination loops floating in the bulk of liquid crystals. When combining two series of disclination loops emanating from the top and bottom surfaces, we obtain real 2D disclination networks in a closed liquid crystal cell. By utilizing a hybrid-aligned liquid crystal cell, with PBP orientations, as a phase shift mask in a projection system, we are able to recursively increase the spatial dynamic range for each projection.
- Published
- 2018