High Power Laser Science and Engineering, 2019, 7 (1): 010000e9, Published Online: Feb. 25, 2019
High damage threshold liquid crystal binary mask for laser beam shaping Download: 532次
Abstract
In order to improve the damage threshold and enlarge the aperture of a laser beam shaper, photolithographic patterning technology is adopted to design a new type of liquid crystal binary mask. The inherent conductive metal layer of commercial liquid crystal electro-optical spatial light modulators is replaced by azobenzene-based photoalignment layers patterned by noncontact photolithography. Using the azobenzene-based photoalignment layer, a liquid crystal binary mask for beam shaping is fabricated. In addition, the shaping ability, damage threshold, write/erase flexibility and stability of the liquid crystal binary mask are tested. Using a 1 Hz near-IR (1064 nm) laser, the multiple-shot nanosecond damage threshold of the liquid crystal mask is measured to be higher than $15~\text{J}/\text{cm}^{2}$ . The damage threshold of the azobenzene-based photoalignment layer is higher than $50~\text{J}/\text{cm}^{2}$ under the same testing conditions.
Gang Xia, Wei Fan, Dajie Huang, He Cheng, Jiangtao Guo, Xiaoqin Wang. High damage threshold liquid crystal binary mask for laser beam shaping[J]. High Power Laser Science and Engineering, 2019, 7(1): 010000e9.