Nearly-analogue blazed phase grating using high birefringence liquid crystal

Diffraction of liquid crystal gratings has been thoroughly studied for many applications such as diffraction optics, optical processing, and spectral analysis. In pure optical processing one varies the direction of propagation of light beam without any mechanical adjustment. In this work we propose a beam steering device using highly birefringent liquid crystal material. Using a highly birefringent material one can reduce the LC layer thickness needed to achieve 2π of phase modulation and thus reduce the fringing effect caused by deformation of the electric field at the edge of the pixel. Here, we present 1.5-µm thick, high-resolution diffraction grating with non-detectable fringing.