Abstract
A simple phase grating is constructed by inserting a liquid crystal layer between two glass plates, on one of which a pair of transparent interdigitated electrodes is formed. The in-plane switching for the liquid crystal molecules alters the grating characteristics. Since one of the transparent plates can be used as a light guide, a light source and a detector mounted on one side of the plate can be connected optically, thus a planar optics configuration is realized. Here, active functions such as switching, wavelength division, power adjustment, etc. are embedded to the connection itself.
