Paper 12990-69
Metasurfaces embedded in inhomogeneously aligned liquid crystals
11 April 2024 • 14:15 - 14:30 CEST | Etoile C, Niveau/Level 1
Abstract
Integrating metasurfaces into Liquid Crystal (LCs) cells is a suitable pathway for the realization of tunable optical devices. In such cells, the initial alignment of the LC molecules can be controlled by photoalignment layers. Here, we study the integration of a homogeneous silicon nanocylinder metasurface into an inhomogeneously aligned LC. To locally induce a change in the alignment direction of the LC starting from homogeneous exposure with x-polarized blue light, the photoalignment layers are re-exposed with structured y-polarized blue light. In the spatially-resolved transmittance spectra of the LC integrated metasurface, the double-exposed region can be identified by wavelength-dependent transmittance changes induced by the reorientation of the LC molecules and corresponding spectral shifts of the metasurface Mie resonances. Our results demonstrate that metasurfaces embedded into inhomogeneously aligned LCs allow for the controlled implementation of arbitrary spatial patterns. Possible applications include reconfigurable images, holograms, gratings and Fresnel zone plates.
Presenter
Maximilian Beddoe
Friedrich-Schiller-Univ. Jena (Germany), Abbe School of Photonics (Germany)
Maximilian Beddoe received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from LMU Munich, Germany, in 2020. In 2022, he finished his Master thesis in the group of Stefan Maier at LMU Munich. In his Master thesis, he studied coupling processes between bound states in the continuum and molecular vibrations. Furthermore, he investigated dental fillings with different methods of infrared spectroscopy. After having received his Master of Science degree in Physics, he became a PhD student in the group of Isabelle Staude at FSU Jena, Germany. He is working on liquid-crystal tunable metasurfaces. His focus is on achieving spatially variant active control of the metasurface optical properties. To this end he uses structured light as a stimulus to alter the properties of the metasurface system as a function of in-plane position.