Terahertz Airy beam generator with electrically-controlled liquid crystal

• Patterned electrodes on LC allow tunable phase profile construction. • A switchable THz Airy beam generator with a cubic phase was demonstrated. • A non-diffracting, self-accelerating, self-healing Airy beam realized at 2.54 THz. • Dynamic wavefront shaping realized across 2.3–2.8 THz broadband. We presented a broadband one-dimensional terahertz Airy beam generator with binary-phase elements by exploiting the transparent patterned-electrodes to electrically control nematic liquid crystal. The Airy beam generator can perform switching between Airy and Gaussian beams in a wide range from 2.3 to 2.8 THz by external voltage control. Typical diffraction-free, self-accelerating and self-healing characteristics were experimentally confirmed with the electrically switchable Airy beams at 2.54 THz. The scheme of liquid-crystal-based terahertz Airy beam generator has the advantages of broadband switchable operation, low cost and easy fabrication, with potential application in multi-dimensional simultaneous measurements by inter-switching between Airy and Gaussian beams.