Electrically modulated transparent liquid crystal-optical grating projection

A transparent, fully integrated electrically modulated projection technique is presented based on light guiding through a thin liquid crystal layer covering sub-wavelength gratings. The reported device operates at 10 V with response times of 4.5 ms. Analysis of the liquid crystal alignment shows that director-reorientation occurs over timescales on the order of 90 μs close to the grating surface. The technology is suitable for next generation heads-up-displays and reconfigurable multilayer photonic integrated circuits. © 2013 Optical Society of America.