Fabrication of reconfigurable liquid crystal polarisers via spatial light modulator assisted photoalignment

This study proposes a novel fabrication method for liquid crystal (LC) polarisers that employs a liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) for photoalignment. The experimental procedure consists of two sequential steps: first, a simple LC grating was fabricated via LC-SLM-induced alignment, and its spectral performance was characterised to validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the method; subsequently, an LC polariser was produced using the same photoalignment technique. The alignment quality and polarisation performance of the resulting polariser were systematically evaluated through extinction ratio (ER) measurements. Although this ER remains relatively low compared to commercial polarisers, the method successfully establishes LC-SLM as a versatile and reconfigurable platform for LC polarisation optics. This approach is particularly promising for adaptive optical systems where dynamic reconfigurability is prioritised over maximum extinction efficiency. Further improvements in performance may be attainable through optimisation of LC materials and alignment parameters.