| Abstract Scope |
Thin-film liquid crystalline diffractive waveplates have the potential to dramatically reduce size, weight, and power for large-aperture optical components as well as provide nonmechanical functionality. The combination of large optical birefringence and molecular self-assembly provide continuous phase control. Topological patterning into a geometrical phase provides nearly 100% diffraction efficiency for circularly polarized light. In total, these attributes allow the fabrication for any arbitrary phase function, e.g. lenses, prisms, axicons, etc. Fabrication involves polymer stabilization and photoalignment leveraging decades of liquid crystal material science. An 8" aperture, lightweight diffractive wavelplate lens is presented followed by discussions on both mechanical and nonmechanical beam steering embodiments. Highly efficient and spectrally broadband nonmechanical line-of-sight steering is also demonstrated |