Polarization independent beam fanning using a multi-domain liquid crystal cell

Polarization independent beam fanning using a multi-domain liquid crystal (LC) cell is demonstrated experimentally. In the neighboring domains, the LC directors are aligned in orthogonal directions. To prove concepts, two hybrid-aligned LC cells with four and six domains were fabricated. Applying a voltage across the LC layer will change the phase difference between the neighboring domains. When the phase difference is 2mpi (m is an integer), the LC cell will not disturb the incident beam. However, if the phase shift is (2m + 1)pi, the outgoing beam will fan out into several beams; the number of fanout beams is equal to the domain number.