Extended Jones matrix method for oblique incidence study of polarization gratings

A fast and accurate extended Jones matrix method for characterizing the transmitted field of polarization gratings at oblique incidence is reported. The far field diffraction properties of the mth order of the grating are determined by vectorial Fourier coefficients of the transmitted field. With this method, polar plots of the various transmission orders can be obtained. The dependence of viewing angle performance on the grating pitch and grating thickness is studied. Liquid crystal polarization gratings with different pitches were fabricated with azo-dye SD-1 as photoalignment material, by polarization holography. The experimental results show very good agreement with the calculated data.