Multidimensional Multiplexing Liquid Crystal Holograms

As a powerful platform for next-generation display, planar liquid crystal (LC) optics exhibit attractive properties such as electro-optical response, high efficiency, and broadband tunability. With planar LC optics applications taking off, multidimensional modulation and multiplexing capability of light wave is becoming crucial. Here, a Pancharatnam-Berry phase LC hologram is demonstrated that enables the multidimensional modulation of amplitude, phase, and polarization of light, which increases the degree of freedom of multiplexing display to 4 at a single wavelength, realizing the simultaneous decoupling modulation in dual polarization channels in near and far fields. According to the quaternary degeneracy characteristics of the orientation angle of LC molecules implied in Malus' law, the LC holograms are designed using the optimized Gerchberg-Saxton and annealing algorithms, and it is demonstrated that the spatial and polarization multiplexing of LC holograms have remarkable wavelength-dependent electrical tunability. This LC hologram paves a promising pathway toward multifunctional LC optics for advanced display and imaging.