Title :
Liquid-crystal micropolarimeter array for visible linear and circular polarization imaging
Author :
Zhao, Xiaojin ; Bermak, Amine ; Boussaid, Farid ; Chigrinov, Vladimir G.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of ECE, Hong Kong Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Hong Kong, China
fDate :
May 30 2010-June 2 2010
Abstract :
In this paper, we propose a liquid-crystal mi-cropolarimeter (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 5μm × 5μm 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.
Keywords :
image sensors; light polarisation; liquid crystals; micro-optics; optical collimators; polarimeters; alignment material; circular polarization imaging; collimated artificial light; liquid crystal layer micropatterning; liquid crystal micropolarimeter array; visible linear imaging; CMOS image sensors; Data mining; High-resolution imaging; Layout; Liquid crystals; Optical arrays; Optical collimators; Optical imaging; Optical polarization; Optical retarders;
Conference_Titel :
Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), Proceedings of 2010 IEEE International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Paris
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-5308-5
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-5309-2
DOI :
10.1109/ISCAS.2010.5537510