Thin Prism Arrays

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next

Making liquid crystal prisms is simple. Start with a transparent film that has a large number of parallel triangular grooves. Films of this type are made in quantity by Reflexite and are 60-150 µm thick with grooves that are 12-25 µm deep. Filling the grooves with liquid crystal produces a perfectly uniform array of liquid crystal prisms called a steering panel. A simple surface treatment aligns the liquid crystal molecules in the direction of choice, called the director, which determines which polarization of light experiences the extraordinary refractive index.