| Liquid crystal polymer(LCP)is one kind of polymerizable liquid crystal.After UV polymerization,molecular orientation can be maintained.Photoalignment can control the optical axis of LCP precursor,and realize as optical functional films.LCP brings new features such as self-standing,repeated adhesive ability and flexibility.Thus a strategy for integrated and reconfigurable optical paths based on stacking optical functional films is proposed.It keeps the freedom of selecting and assembling of optical elements like the free-space optical system,while the overall volume and weight are drastically reduced.In this work,LCP films with both homogeneous and spatially variant optical axes are fabricated.Then they are cascaded together to generate vector vortex beams(VVBs).By changing and rearranging the separate films,the polarization order and topological charge of generated VVBs are controlled independently.Moreover,other complex optical field,such as cylindrical vector beams,Airy-vortex beam and beam array could also be realized.Besides,the flexibility of LCP films makes their covering on other optical elements with curved surfaces possible.This low-cost,light-weight versatile technique dramatically reduces the volume and keeps the freedom of optical system,which has great potentials in optical communications,virtual/augmented reality display and optical computing. |
