We present a facile method to control the three-dimensional (3D) orientation of blue phase (BP) liquid crystals. The field-induced intermediate phases, focal conic and BP X, from electrically unwound homeotropic state induce the [001] crystal axis to be aligned along the surface anchoring and the (110) crystal plane oriented parallel to the substrate, respectively. This method was used to fabricate a computer-generated hologram through Bragg-Berry (BB) phase that the phase of Bragg reflected light is modulated by controlling the azimuthal orientation of BPs. Furthermore, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the BB hologram shows circular polarization selectivity for all angles of incidence, owing to the 3D helical structure of BPs.
We have investigated the azimuthal orientation behavior of blue phase (BPI) lattice reoriented from the electrically unwound homeotropic state, and it was found that the azimuthal angle changes to align the [001] axis parallel to the easy axis on a unidirectionally orienting surface upon an electric filed treatment. By combining this effect with the Pancharatnam-Berry effect, we designed and demonstrated various holographic optical elements (HOEs) such as deflector, lens, and hologram by appropriately designing the distribution of lattice orientations. In contrast to cholesteric liquid crystals that show diminished circular polarization selectivity upon largely oblique incidence, we demonstrate that the BP-based HOEs maintain the circular polarization selectivity even for oblique light incidence, owing to the three-dimensional helical structure of the BP.
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