Axially symmetric polarization converter made of patterned liquid crystal quarter wave plate

Abstract

We present a method to fabricate a radially and azimuthally polarized light converter by deploying a patterned liquid crystal (LC) quarter-wave plates (QWP). The patterned QWP has been fabricated by providing the axially symmetric alignment to the LC layer by mean of photo-alignment. When the left handed circularly (LHC) or right handed circularly (RHC) polarized light passes through these patterned QWPs, the emergent light becomes radially or azimuthally polarized. Moreover, the proposed polarization converters are characterized by the fast response time, thus could find application in various fast photonic devices.