Liquid-crystal micropolarimeter array for visible linear and circular polarization imaging

In this paper, we propose a liquid-crystal micropolarimeter (LCMP) array with high spatial resolution for real-time linear and circular polarization imaging in visible spectrum. LCMPs for extracting 0°, 90° linearly and right-handed circularly polarized components of incident light are implemented by micro-patterning a liquid crystal (LC) layer on top of a 45° oriented ultra-thin metal-wire-grid polarizer (MWGP). A compact LCMP pitch of 5μmx5μm is achieved with sulfonic-dye-1 (SD1) as the LC alignment material. In addition, these micron-scale LCMPs feature ∼ 5μm overall thickness and ∼1100 extinction ratio. Reported experimental results validate the concept of real-time linear and circular polarization image sensing and processing with targets illuminated by collimated artificial light. ©2010 IEEE