Abstract:
An active liquid crystal diffraction element includes: a first transparent substrate (3); a second transparent substrate (4); a liquid crystal layer (2); a first electrode (5); a second electrode (6); a control member (7); and an alignment member (8), wherein the second electrode (6) includes a plurality of small electrodes (9); the control member (7) controls a magnitude of an electric voltage applied to each of the plurality of small electrodes (9); the alignment member (8) confers a liquid crystal molecular alignment without any pre-tilt to the liquid crystal layer (2); and the liquid crystal molecular alignment is parallel to the surface of the first transparent substrate (3).
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a controllable diffraction device (20) for a light modulator device (10). The controllable diffraction device (20) comprises at least two substrates (28, 30), at least one electrode (26, 32) on each of said substrates (28, 30) facing each other, and liquid crystals (70) forming at least one liquid crystal layer (34) arranged between said electrodes (26, 32) on said substrates (28, 30). The orientation of the liquid crystals (70) is controllable by a voltage supplied to the electrodes (26, 32). The liquid crystal layer (34) is provided on at least one alignment layer (36, 38) arranged on at least one electrode (26, 32) on said substrates (28, 30). The liquid crystals (70) close to the alignment layer (36, 38) are pre-oriented by at least one pre-tilt angle relative to the alignment layer (36, 38) such that the resulting light diffraction in opposite spatial directions is approximately equal.