Patterned cholesteric liquid crystal polymer film

Herein, the ability to create arbitrarily patterned circular polarized optical devices is demonstrated by using cholesteric liquid crystal polymer. Photoalignment with polarized ultraviolet light is utilized to create aligned cholesteric liquid crystal films. Two different methods, thermal annealing and solvent rinse, are utilized for patterning cholesteric liquid crystal films over large areas. The patterned cholesteric liquid crystal films are measured using a Mueller matrix imaging polarimeter, and the polarization properties, including depolarization index, circular diattenuation (CD), and circular retardance are derived. Patterned nonlinearly polarized optical devices can be fabricated with feature sizes as small as 20 mu m with a CD of 0.812 +/- 0.015. Circular polarizing filters based on polymer cholesteric liquid crystal films have applications in three-dimensional displays, medical imaging, polarimetry, and interferometry. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America