40.2: A Polarization‐independent Liquid Crystal Device with large Phase Retardation.

A polarization‐independent liquid crystal (LC) device for large optical phase depth is demonstrated. Using LC layer with the twist angle of 180°, the parallel rubbing LC device shows good polarization‐independence. A phase modulator with a 180° twist LC layer and cell gap of 12um was fabricated whose polarization dependence can be lowered to 0.1% for 8.7π phase retardation at 532nm. The proposed LC phase modulator shows great potential for optical communication and imaging systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]