Inner helical waveplate with angle-insensitive retardation

• Published in: Optics express 2021-08, Vol.29 (18), p.28924-28934
• Main Authors: Zhang, Chi, Niu, Rui, Sha, Pengfei, Li, Xiaoshuai, Ma, Hongmei, Sun, Yubao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.435975

The angle-sensitivity is a serious defect of birefringent waveplate, and it draws lots of interest from researchers. In this paper, an angle-insensitive waveplate with inner helix structure is proposed. The super-twisted nematic liquid crystal polymer is used to fabricate the inner helical waveplate, and the retardation-shift is measured and analyzed. In the measured result, the retardation-shift is in the range from -0.311% to 0.194% at 45° polar angle, which is 2 orders of magnitude lower than that of the conventional waveplate. Theoretically, the retardation-shift is less than 0.5% in the polar angle range from 0° to 60°, and it will be less if the material with high refractive index is used. The analysis of the self-compensation effect explains the principle of angle-insensitivity, and the influence of tilt angle on angle-sensitivity is also investigated to guide the better design. At last, the application of the inner helical waveplate in wide color gamut display is taken as an example to show the broad application prospects.