Anisotropic photonic structures induced by three-dimensional vector holography in dye-doped liquid crystals

Periodic anisotropic structures were induced by means of a three-dimensional vector holographic technique in an azo-dye-doped liquid crystal composite with uniaxial alignment. The three-dimensional vector hologram was fabricated by both the polarization interference and the polarization propagation in the anisotropic recording, medium. In order to obtain clear insight into the optical properties of three-dimensional vector holograms, various types of structures were induced by changing the polarization states and incident angles of the recording beams. The diffraction properties of various types of three-dimensional vector holograms were calculated by the finite-difference time-domain method, and the theoretical explanations were in good agreement with the experimental results. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.