Direction switching and beam steering of cholesteric liquid crystal gratings

This work proposes two mechanisms for switching the direction of stripes in cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) gratings. The stripe direction depends on the ratio of cell gap to the natural pitch length (d/P-0) of a CLC sample. Electrical switching is based on the different pitches at the planar and the transient planar states. Optical switching, however, changes pitch by using the photo-isomerization effect of the azobenzene doped in a CLC sample. Using the two mechanisms, we can switch the stripe directions in two orthogonal directions. Furthermore, the beam-steering capability of CLC gratings also remains effective after switching directions. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3698384]