Highly stable polarization gratings in photocrosslinkable polymer liquid crystals

Highly stable polarization gratings have been prepared in photocrosslinkable polymer liquid-crystal films by the use of two orthogonally polarized He-Cd laser beams and subsequent annealing. The resulting pure polarization gratings exhibiting thermal stability up to 150 degreesC diffract the beam and convert the polarization state at the same time according to the theoretical expectation. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.