CN111913331A - Liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device and method - Google Patents
Liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device and method Download PDFInfo
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- G—PHYSICS
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- G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
- G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
- G02F1/29—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
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- G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
- G02F1/29—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
- G02F1/292—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection by controlled diffraction or phased-array beam steering
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Abstract
The invention discloses a liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device and a method, wherein the device comprises a cross matrix liquid crystal box, and the cross matrix liquid crystal box sequentially comprises the following components from top to bottom: the liquid crystal display panel comprises an upper substrate, an upper conducting layer, an upper alignment layer, a liquid crystal layer, a lower alignment layer, a lower conducting layer and a lower substrate. The upper substrate and the lower substrate are both made of transparent glass, the upper conducting layer and the lower conducting layer are prepared on the basis of transparent conducting films, the upper conducting layer is provided with a plurality of parallel row electrodes, the width of each row electrode is about the diameter of an incident beam, the lower conducting layer is provided with a plurality of parallel column electrodes perpendicular to the row electrodes, the width of each column electrode is smaller than that of each row electrode, and the alignment directions of the upper alignment layer and the lower alignment layer are 180 degrees. The invention has simple structure, easy processing and manufacturing, lower cost, better mass production, flexible control of the deflection angle of the light beam and suitability for more application scenes.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to a liquid crystal dimming device, in particular to a liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device and a method.
Background
Non-mechanical beam deflection devices are widely used in optical communication, laser scanning radar, 3D scanning equipment and other industries. The current non-mechanical beam deflection devices, some of which are mature in use and some of which are in the development stage, are not widely used.
In the patent with publication number CN 103703405a, a wavelength selective switch for the communication industry is disclosed, which uses a combination of a liquid crystal cell and a polarization grating cell to achieve control of beam deflection. The liquid crystal cell controls left-right hand switching of circular polarization. The polarization grating realizes diffraction of different angles on circular polarized light. However, the difficulty of the polarization grating manufacturing process is great, so that the device is difficult to be produced in large scale at the present stage.
In US7499608, a wavelength selective switch for use in the telecommunications industry is disclosed, using a liquid crystal cell and a wedge-shaped birefringent prism to achieve control of the beam deflection. The liquid crystal cell controls the linearly polarized light to switch between S-polarization and P-polarization. The birefringent prism has different refractive indices for S-polarization and P-polarization, thereby controlling different deflection angles of the outgoing light. Although the device is produced in mass production at present, the birefringent wedge prism has high manufacturing precision and high price, so that the whole system has high cost.
The light beam device adopting the liquid crystal on silicon accurately controls the phase of reflected light on each pixel point by accurately controlling the liquid crystal deflection angle of each pixel on the liquid crystal on silicon screen, thereby accurately controlling the reflection angle of the reflected light. However, since it relates to both semiconductor industry and liquid crystal display industry, it is difficult to manufacture, high in cost, and difficult to make a large targeted design change.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device and a liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection method, which have the advantages of simple structure, easiness in processing and manufacturing, lower cost, better mass production performance, flexibility in controlling the light beam deflection angle and suitability for more application scenes.
In order to achieve the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a liquid crystal electric control beam deflecting device, comprising a cross matrix liquid crystal cell, the cross matrix liquid crystal cell sequentially comprising, from top to bottom: the liquid crystal display panel comprises an upper substrate, an upper conducting layer, an upper alignment layer, a liquid crystal layer, a lower alignment layer, a lower conducting layer and a lower substrate;
the upper substrate and the lower substrate are both made of transparent glass, the upper conducting layer and the lower conducting layer are prepared on the basis of transparent conducting films, the upper conducting layer is provided with a plurality of parallel row electrodes, the width of each row electrode is about the diameter of an incident beam, the lower conducting layer is provided with a plurality of parallel column electrodes perpendicular to the row electrodes, the width of each column electrode is smaller than the width of each row electrode, and the alignment directions of the upper alignment layer and the lower alignment layer form 180 degrees with each other.
Preferably, the liquid crystal layer includes nematic liquid crystal.
Preferably, the first distance is defined as the sum of a row electrode width and a row electrode gap, said first distance being between 10 micrometers and 10 millimeters.
Preferably, the second distance is defined as the sum of a column electrode width and a column electrode gap, the second distance being between 1 micron and 10 microns.
Preferably, the row electrodes are arranged in an equally spaced arrangement, and/or the column electrodes are arranged in an equally spaced arrangement.
Preferably, the column electrodes are plated with metal electrodes having a specular reflection function.
In a second aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a liquid crystal electric control beam deflection method, including:
providing the liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device;
dividing the lower conductive layer into a plurality of column electrode groups, wherein each of the column electrode groups includes adjacent and equal number of column electrodes;
the driving voltage is set as follows: sequentially increasing the driving voltage corresponding to the column electrodes in each column electrode group according to a fixed direction, so that the liquid crystal corresponding to each column electrode group is changed in a gradient manner from a horizontal direction to a vertical direction;
loading the driving voltage to each driving unit in sequence by taking each row electrode and the corresponding column electrode as the driving unit; the time for loading the driving voltage by each driving unit is less than T/x, T is the total time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit once, and x is the number of row electrodes;
and vertically irradiating polarized light with the polarization direction parallel to the liquid crystal alignment in the liquid crystal layer from the lower substrate to the crossed matrix liquid crystal box, so that the transmission direction of the polarized light is deflected.
Preferably, the method further comprises: adjusting the deflection angle of the polarized light by setting the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group;
the correspondence between the polarization deflection angle and the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group is as follows:
θ＝arcsin[D(nx1-nx2)/(k×d)]
wherein θ is a deflection angle of a propagation direction of the polarized light after passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal cell, and θ satisfies: θ ≦ arcsin [ (Δ n × D)/((k × D)](ii) a Δ n is the difference between the refractive index of the extraordinary ray and the refractive index of the ordinary ray; n isx1The refractive index corresponding to the polarized light when the liquid crystal is arranged in the horizontal direction is smaller than or equal to the refractive index of the extraordinary rays; n isx2Is a refractive index corresponding to said polarized light when the liquid crystal is aligned in a homeotropic direction and is greater than or equal to said ordinary refractive index; d is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer, D is the sum of the width of one column electrode and the gap of one column electrode, and k is the number of the column electrodes contained in the column electrode group.
In a third aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a liquid crystal electric control beam deflecting method, including:
providing the liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device;
dividing the lower conductive layer into a plurality of column electrode groups, wherein each of the column electrode groups includes adjacent and equal number of column electrodes;
the driving voltage is set as follows: sequentially increasing the driving voltage corresponding to the column electrodes in each column electrode group according to a fixed direction, so that the liquid crystal corresponding to each column electrode group is changed in a gradient manner from a horizontal direction to a vertical direction;
loading the driving voltage to each driving unit in sequence by taking each row electrode and the corresponding column electrode as the driving unit; the time for loading the driving voltage by each driving unit is less than T/x, T is the total time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit once, and x is the number of row electrodes;
and vertically injecting polarized light with the polarization direction parallel to the liquid crystal alignment in the liquid crystal layer into the crossed matrix liquid crystal box from the upper substrate, so that the transmission direction of the polarized light is deflected.
Preferably, the method further comprises:
adjusting the deflection angle of the polarized light by setting the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group;
the correspondence between the polarization deflection angle and the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group is as follows:
θ＝arcsin[2D(nx1-nx2)/(k×d)]
wherein θ is a deflection angle of a propagation direction of the polarized light after passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal cell, and θ satisfies: θ ≦ arcsin [ (Δ n × D)/((k × D)](ii) a Δ n is the difference between the refractive index of the extraordinary ray and the refractive index of the ordinary ray, nx1The refractive index corresponding to the polarized light when the liquid crystal is arranged in the horizontal direction is smaller than or equal to the refractive index of the extraordinary rays; n isx2Is a refractive index corresponding to said polarized light when the liquid crystal is aligned in a homeotropic direction and is greater than or equal to said ordinary refractive index; d is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer, D is the sum of the width of one column electrode and the gap of one column electrode, and k is the number of the column electrodes contained in the column electrode group.
The invention has the advantages that:
the liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device and the method thereof provided by the invention use the passive driving screen structure with simple structure, realize the non-mechanical electric control light beam deflection function, and the device is easy to process and manufacture, has lower cost and better mass production. The deflection angle of the light beam can be adjusted by adjusting the driving voltage of the device and the number of the column electrodes in the column electrode group, so that the use method is more flexible and is suitable for more application scenes.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a main structure of an electric control beam deflector of a liquid crystal in an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a main structure of an upper conductive layer and a lower conductive layer in an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the main steps of a method for deflecting an electric control beam of liquid crystal in an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a process of deflecting a light beam by a column electrode group according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a circuit configuration for testing the refresh frequency of a cross-matrix liquid crystal cell in an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a main structure of an electrically controlled beam deflector according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the main steps of an electric control method for deflecting a light beam by a liquid crystal according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 schematically shows a main structure of a liquid crystal electric beam steering apparatus. As shown in fig. 1, the electric control liquid crystal beam deflecting device according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10, where the cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10 includes, in order from top to bottom: an upper substrate 1, an upper conductive layer 2, an upper alignment layer 3, a liquid crystal layer 4, a lower alignment layer 5, a lower conductive layer 6, and a lower substrate 7. Wherein, the upper substrate 1 and the lower substrate 7 are both transparent glass. The upper conductive layer 2 and the lower conductive layer 6 are prepared based on a transparent conductive film, and the upper conductive layer 2 is provided as a plurality of row electrodes 21 arranged in parallel, the width of the row electrodes 21 being about the diameter of an incident light beam, and the lower conductive layer 6 is provided as a plurality of column electrodes 61 arranged in parallel and perpendicular to the row electrodes, the width of the column electrodes 61 being smaller than the width of the row electrodes. The alignment directions of the upper and lower alignment layers 3 and 5 are 180 degrees to each other.
Specifically, the liquid crystal 41 in the liquid crystal layer 4 is a nematic liquid crystal, and the refractive index of the liquid crystal 41 is nx. The refractive index of the liquid crystal is n when the polarization direction of the incident polarized light is parallel to the long axis direction of the liquid crystal 41eIn this embodiment, neIs the index of refraction of extraordinary rays. The refractive index of the liquid crystal is n when the polarization direction of the incident polarized light is parallel to the minor axis direction of the liquid crystal 41oIn this embodiment, noIs the ordinary refractive index. The difference between the refractive index of the extraordinary ray and the refractive index of the ordinary ray is delta n; the thickness of the liquid crystal layer 4 is D.
Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 exemplarily shows a main structure of an upper conductive layer and a lower conductive layer. As shown in fig. 2, the upper conductive layer 2 and the lower conductive layer 6 are prepared based on a transparent conductive film. A plurality of parallel row electrodes 21 are etched in the upper conductive layer 2, the plurality of row electrodes 21 may be arranged at equal intervals, and the width of the row electrodes 21 may be designed according to the size of the light beam that needs to be adjusted. Specifically, the width of the row electrode 21 is about the diameter of the incident light beam, or slightly larger than the diameter of the incident light beam. For example, if the incident beam diameter to be adjusted is 100 microns, the width of the row electrode 21 is also set to be about 100 microns or slightly larger than 100 microns, or equal to 100 microns. Defining a first distance d1A first distance d which is the sum of a row electrode width and a row electrode gap1And may be set between 10 microns and 1000 microns. The design of the line electrode gap is as small as possible, and can be set according to the process capability.
The lower conductive layer 6 is etched to form a plurality of column electrodes 61 arranged in parallel, and the plurality of column electrodes 61 may be arranged at equal intervals. The column electrodes 61 are arranged perpendicular to the row electrodes 21. Defining a second distance d2Is the sum of a column electrode width and a column electrode gap, i.e. the second distance d2Including the width of the column electrodes 61 and the spacing of the column electrodes 61. Second distance d2The smaller the beam deflection angle that can theoretically be achieved, the limited by process capability, the larger the second distance d2Cannot be infinitely small and is too small a second distance d2This results in a small effective width ratio (column electrode width/column electrode pitch) of the column electrodes 61, resulting in a reduced light utilization efficiency. Therefore, in practical applications, the second distance d2And may typically be set between 1 micron and 10 microns.
The alignment directions of the upper and lower alignment layers 3 and 5 are 180 degrees to each other. Namely, the brushing direction of the upper alignment layer 3 and the lower alignment layer 5 is opposite when the films are formed. For example, the upper alignment layer 3 is brush-formed from left to right, and the lower alignment layer 5 is brush-formed from right to left. For another example, the upper alignment layer 3 is made into a film by front-to-back brushing, and the lower alignment layer 5 is made into a film by back-to-front brushing.
Based on the liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device, the embodiment of the invention also provides a liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection method.
Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 illustrates the main steps of a method for deflecting an electric control beam of liquid crystal. As shown in fig. 3, the method for deflecting an electric control beam of a liquid crystal according to an embodiment of the present invention may include the following steps:
step S101: a liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device is provided.
In particular, an electrically controlled beam deflecting device of liquid crystal as provided in the above embodiments may be provided.
Step S102: the lower conductive layer 6 is divided into a plurality of column electrode groups, wherein each column electrode group includes adjacent and equal number of column electrodes 61.
Specifically, the lower conductive layer 6 is divided into a plurality of column electrode groups, the number of column electrodes 61 in each column electrode group is equal, and the column electrodes 61 in each column electrode group are arranged in sequence.
Step S103: the driving voltage is set as follows: the driving voltage for the column electrodes 61 is sequentially increased in a fixed direction for each column electrode group so that the liquid crystal 41 for each column electrode group changes in a gradient from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction.
Specifically, in the column electrode group, the driving voltage corresponding to the column electrode 61 is sequentially increased in a fixed direction, for example, from left to right, so that, when viewed from left to right, the liquid crystal 41 corresponding to the column electrode group changes in a gradient manner from a horizontal direction to a vertical direction, that is, an angle between a long axis direction of the liquid crystal 41 and the horizontal direction changes in a gradient manner from 0 degree to 90 degrees. Or the driving voltages corresponding to the column electrodes 61 are sequentially increased from right to left, so that the liquid crystals 41 corresponding to the column electrode groups are gradually changed from a vertical direction to a horizontal direction when viewed from left to right. The drive voltage settings are the same for each column electrode set. The driving voltage is an alternating current. It is understood that, in an ideal state, the liquid crystal is in a horizontal direction when the driving voltage is 0; on the other hand, when the driving voltage is 0 in the actual state, the liquid crystal is not in the absolute horizontal direction but in the horizontal direction close to the horizontal direction. Similarly, the liquid crystal is in the vertical direction when the driving voltage is maximum; in the actual state, when the driving voltage is maximized, the liquid crystal is not in the absolute vertical direction but in the off-vertical direction close to the vertical direction.
Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary beam deflection process for a set of column electrodes. As shown in fig. 4, the driving voltages applied to the column electrodes 61 are sequentially increased from right to left in the column electrode group, and the alignment direction of the liquid crystal 41 gradually approaches the vertical direction from the horizontal direction. Wherein,
the optical path length corresponding to the leftmost liquid crystal 41 molecule is: n isx1×D，nx1≤ne，nx1The refractive index corresponding to polarized light when the liquid crystal is aligned in the horizontal direction, that is, the refractive index corresponding to polarized light which is vertically incident on the cross matrix cell and has a polarization direction parallel to the alignment direction when the liquid crystal is aligned in the horizontal direction.
The optical path corresponding to the rightmost liquid crystal 41 molecule is: n isx2×D，nx2≥no，nx2The refractive index corresponding to polarized light when the liquid crystal is arranged in a vertical direction, namely the refractive index corresponding to the polarized light which vertically enters the crossed matrix box and has the polarization direction parallel to the alignment direction when the liquid crystal is arranged in the vertical direction;
the beam deflection angle θ is: sin (theta) ═ nx1×D-nx2×D)/(k×d)
And sin (theta) is less than or equal to delta nD/(k multiplied by d).
Where d is the sum of one column electrode width and one column electrode gap, and k is the number of column electrodes 61 included in the column electrode group.
Step S104: and taking each row electrode 21 and the corresponding column electrode 61 as driving units, and sequentially loading a driving voltage to each driving unit, wherein the time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit is less than T/x, T is the total time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit once, and x is the number of the row electrodes.
Specifically, the upper conductive layer 2 is provided with x row electrodes 21, and each row electrode 21 and its corresponding column electrode 61 are used as a driving unit. And loading the driving voltage to each driving unit from the 1 st row to the x-th row in sequence. Each row electrode 21 is loaded with a zero drive voltage when not driven. In the process, after the positive liquid crystal molecules are loaded with the driving voltage, the positive liquid crystal molecules can be quickly deflected towards the direction of the electric field due to the electric field, and the deflection amplitude is determined by the voltage and the power-on time. After the electric field is removed, the liquid crystal molecules are quickly deflected in the direction parallel to the plane of the substrate. If the conventional refresh rate (about 60 Hz) of the display liquid crystal is adopted, the non-power-on time is always much longer than the power-on time for a certain fixed driving unit, the liquid crystal molecules have enough time to return to the angle parallel to the substrate surface direction, the liquid crystal molecules continuously swing between the direction parallel to the substrate surface direction and a certain deflection angle direction under the action of an electric field, and finally, the average light intensity passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal box 10 is seen by human eyes. Therefore, if a stable beam deflection angle is to be obtained, the liquid crystal molecules in the cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10 need to be kept at a fixed angle, and therefore, it is desirable to apply a constant voltage to each drive unit. The structure of the passive cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10 in x rows and y columns determines the ratio of the power-on time of each driving unit to the total time < T/x, so that a higher refresh rate than that of the conventional display is required to achieve the effect that the liquid crystal molecules are approximately constant at a fixed angle. The test and verification can be carried out aiming at the specific liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device so as to obtain better refreshing frequency.
The following is an example of an 8 micron parallel rubbing cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10 to test its preferred refresh rate. The test circuit is shown in FIG. 5 and includes a light source 81, a polarizer 82, a cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10, an analyzer 83, a silicon photocell 84, and an oscilloscope 85 electrically connected thereto. The cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10 is a cross matrix liquid crystal cell of 8 rows and N columns; the types of alignment materials are as follows: dalton DL-2860; the liquid crystal model: the fuming of the tobacco stage is X3P-1002. The test result shows that when 16V driving voltage with the duty ratio of 10% is loaded on the cross matrix liquid crystal box 10, and when the refreshing frequency is 500Hz, the waveform displayed by the oscilloscope 85 shows that the liquid crystal molecules have obvious swing under the action of the electric field. When the driving voltage of 16V with 10% duty ratio is used for driving, the swing amplitude of the liquid crystal molecules under the electric field gradually tends to zero after the refreshing frequency exceeds 2000 Hz. In actual use, the row electrode 21 usually requires 48 rows or more, so that a higher refresh frequency is actually required.
Step S105: polarized light having a polarization direction parallel to the alignment of the liquid crystals 41 in the liquid crystal layer 4 is vertically incident from the lower substrate 7 to the cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10, so that the propagation direction of the polarized light is deflected.
Specifically, the polarized light vertically enters the cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10 from the lower substrate 7 and exits from the upper substrate 1, in the process, the traveling direction of the polarized light is deflected. For a specific liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device, the deflection angle of polarized light can be adjusted by setting the number of column electrodes 61 in the column electrode group thereof. More specifically, the correspondence relationship between the polarization light deflection angle and the number of column electrodes 61 in the column electrode group is as shown in formula (1):
θ1＝arcsin[D(nx1-nx2)/(k×d)] (1)
wherein, theta1Is the angle of deflection of the propagation direction of the polarized light after passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal cell, and θ1Satisfies the following conditions: θ ≦ arcsin [ (Δ n × D)/((k × D)]。
In summary, according to the above-mentioned liquid crystal electric control beam deflecting apparatus and method, the propagation direction of the polarized light can be deflected by a fixed angle by utilizing the diffraction effect.
Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 schematically shows the main structure of a liquid crystal electric beam steering apparatus of another embodiment. When the number of row electrodes 21 is designed to be large or the row pitch is large, the length of the column electrode 61 is designed to be correspondingly long, so that the resistance of the column electrode 61 is large, and the light deflection effects corresponding to different row electrodes 21 are greatly different. For this purpose, a metal electrode 62 having a mirror reflection function may be vapor-deposited on the column electrode 61. The metal electrode 62 may be made of an aluminum material if applied in a visible light scene. After the metal electrode 62 is plated, the column electrode 61 is opaque and has a mirror reflection function, so that the reflection characteristic of the metal electrode 62 can be utilized to make the liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device be a reflection type application.
Based on the reflection-type liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection device, the embodiment of the invention also provides a liquid crystal electric control light beam deflection method.
Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 illustrates the main steps of another method for electrically controlling the deflection of a light beam by a liquid crystal. As shown in fig. 7, a method for deflecting an electric control beam of a liquid crystal according to an embodiment of the present invention may include:
step S201: a liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device is provided. Specifically, the reflection-type liquid crystal electric-controlled beam deflecting device is described above.
Step S202: the lower conductive layer 6 is divided into a plurality of column electrode groups, wherein each column electrode group includes adjacent and equal number of column electrodes 61.
Step S203: the driving voltage is set as follows: the driving voltage for the column electrodes 61 is sequentially increased in a fixed direction for each column electrode group so that the liquid crystal 41 for each column electrode group changes in a gradient from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction.
Step S204: each row electrode 21 and the corresponding column electrode 61 are taken as driving units, and driving voltage is loaded to each driving unit in sequence; and the time for loading the driving voltage by each driving unit is less than T/x, T is the total time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit once, and x is the number of row electrodes.
Step S205: polarized light having a polarization direction parallel to the liquid crystal alignment in the liquid crystal layer is vertically incident from the upper substrate 1 to the cross matrix liquid crystal cell 10, so that the propagation direction of the polarized light is deflected.
Specifically, steps S202 to S204 may refer to steps S102 to S104, which are not described herein again.
In the reflection type liquid crystal electronic control beam deflection device, polarized light is input from the upper substrate 1, enters the cross matrix liquid crystal box 10, is reflected by the lower conducting layer 6, and then is emitted from the upper substrate 1 again, and in the process, the polarized light is deflected at a fixed angle. More specifically, the deflection angle of the polarized light can be adjusted by setting the number of column electrodes 61 in the column electrode group. The correspondence of the polarization deflection angle to the number of column electrodes 61 in the column electrode group is shown in formula (2):
θ2＝arcsin[2D(nx1-nx2)/(k×d)] (2)
wherein, theta2Is the deflection angle of the propagation direction of the polarized light after passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal cell.
Similarly, the reflective liquid crystal electric control beam deflecting device also needs higher driving frequency. The specific liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device can be verified through testing so as to obtain a better refreshing frequency.
In summary, the device and the method for deflecting the liquid crystal electric control light beam provided by the invention use the passive driving screen structure with simple structure, realize the non-mechanical electric control light beam deflection function, and the device is easy to process and manufacture, and has lower cost and better mass production. The deflection angle of the light beam can be adjusted by adjusting the driving voltage of the device and the number of the column electrodes in the column electrode group, so that the use method is more flexible and is suitable for more application scenes.
The above description is of the preferred embodiment of the present invention and the technical principles applied thereto, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that any changes and modifications based on the equivalent changes and simple substitutions of the technical solution of the present invention are within the protection scope of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Claims (10)
1. The device for deflecting the liquid crystal electric control light beam is characterized by comprising a cross matrix liquid crystal box, wherein the cross matrix liquid crystal box sequentially comprises from top to bottom: the liquid crystal display panel comprises an upper substrate, an upper conducting layer, an upper alignment layer, a liquid crystal layer, a lower alignment layer, a lower conducting layer and a lower substrate;
the upper substrate and the lower substrate are both made of transparent glass, the upper conducting layer and the lower conducting layer are prepared on the basis of transparent conducting films, the upper conducting layer is provided with a plurality of parallel row electrodes, the width of each row electrode is about the diameter of an incident beam, the lower conducting layer is provided with a plurality of parallel column electrodes perpendicular to the row electrodes, the width of each column electrode is smaller than the width of each row electrode, and the alignment directions of the upper alignment layer and the lower alignment layer form 180 degrees with each other.
2. The liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device of claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal layer comprises nematic liquid crystal.
3. An electrically controlled beam deflector according to claim 1, wherein the first distance is defined as the sum of a row electrode width and a row electrode gap, and wherein said first distance is between 10 μm and 10 mm.
4. An electrically controllable beam deflector device as claimed in claim 1, in which the second distance is defined as the sum of a width of a column electrode and a gap between column electrodes, the second distance being between 1 micron and 10 microns.
5. An electrically controlled beam deflector according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the row electrodes are arranged at equal intervals; and/or the column electrodes are arranged in an equally spaced arrangement.
6. An electrically controlled beam deflecting device according to claim 5, wherein said column electrodes are coated with metal electrodes having a mirror reflection function.
7. A method of electrically controlling deflection of a beam of liquid crystal light, the method comprising:
providing a liquid crystal electronically controlled beam deflecting device according to any one of claims 1 to 5;
dividing the lower conductive layer into a plurality of column electrode groups, wherein each of the column electrode groups includes adjacent and equal number of column electrodes;
the driving voltage is set as follows: sequentially increasing the driving voltage corresponding to the column electrodes in each column electrode group according to a fixed direction, so that the liquid crystal corresponding to each column electrode group is changed in a gradient manner from a horizontal direction to a vertical direction;
loading the driving voltage to each driving unit in sequence by taking each row electrode and the corresponding column electrode as the driving unit; the time for loading the driving voltage by each driving unit is less than T/x, T is the total time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit once, and x is the number of row electrodes;
and vertically irradiating polarized light with the polarization direction parallel to the liquid crystal alignment in the liquid crystal layer from the lower substrate to the crossed matrix liquid crystal box, so that the transmission direction of the polarized light is deflected.
8. A method for deflecting an electrically controlled beam of liquid crystal according to claim 7, said method further comprising: adjusting the deflection angle of the polarized light by setting the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group;
the correspondence between the polarization deflection angle and the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group is as follows:
θ＝arcsin[D(nx1-nx2)/(k×d)]
wherein θ is a deflection angle of a propagation direction of the polarized light after passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal cell, and θ satisfies: θ ≦ arcsin [ (Δ n × D)/((k × D)](ii) a Δ n is the difference between the refractive index of the extraordinary ray and the refractive index of the ordinary ray; n isx1The refractive index corresponding to the polarized light when the liquid crystal is arranged in the horizontal direction is smaller than or equal to the refractive index of the extraordinary rays; n isx2Is a refractive index corresponding to said polarized light when the liquid crystal is aligned in a homeotropic direction and is greater than or equal to said ordinary refractive index; d is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer, D is the sum of the width of one column electrode and the gap of one column electrode, and k is the number of the column electrodes contained in the column electrode group.
9. A method of electrically controlling deflection of a beam of liquid crystal light, the method comprising:
providing a liquid crystal electric control beam deflection device as claimed in claim 6;
dividing the lower conductive layer into a plurality of column electrode groups, wherein each of the column electrode groups includes adjacent and equal number of column electrodes;
the driving voltage is set as follows: sequentially increasing the driving voltage corresponding to the column electrodes in each column electrode group according to a fixed direction, so that the liquid crystal corresponding to each column electrode group is changed in a gradient manner from a horizontal direction to a vertical direction;
loading the driving voltage to each driving unit in sequence by taking each row electrode and the corresponding column electrode as the driving unit; the time for loading the driving voltage by each driving unit is less than T/x, T is the total time for loading the driving voltage to each driving unit once, and x is the number of row electrodes;
and vertically injecting polarized light with the polarization direction parallel to the liquid crystal alignment in the liquid crystal layer into the crossed matrix liquid crystal box from the upper substrate, so that the transmission direction of the polarized light is deflected.
10. A method for deflecting an electrically controlled beam of liquid crystal according to claim 9, said method further comprising:
adjusting the deflection angle of the polarized light by setting the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group;
the correspondence between the polarization deflection angle and the number of column electrodes in the column electrode group is as follows:
θ＝arcsin[2D(nx1-nx2)/(k×d)]
wherein θ is a deflection angle of a propagation direction of the polarized light after passing through the cross matrix liquid crystal cell, and θ satisfies: θ ≦ arcsin [ (Δ n × D)/((k × D)](ii) a Δ n is the difference between the refractive index of the extraordinary ray and the refractive index of the ordinary ray, nx1The refractive index corresponding to the polarized light when the liquid crystal is arranged in the horizontal direction is smaller than or equal to the refractive index of the extraordinary rays; n isx2For corresponding refraction of said polarized light when the liquid crystal is in off-vertical alignmentA ratio and is greater than or equal to the ordinary refractive index; d is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer, D is the sum of the width of one column electrode and the gap of one column electrode, and k is the number of the column electrodes contained in the column electrode group.
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