Plasmonic Metamasks for Photopatterning of Arbitrary Molecular Orientations

Spatially variant molecular orientations are central to the functionalities of various liquid crystal applications such as Pancharatnam lens, q-plate, command of active matter and programmable stimulus-responsive morphing of liquid crystal polymers. In this talk, we will present a photopatterning technique which allows for high resolution and high throughput patterning of arbitrary molecular orientations by using plasmonic metamasks. Unlike tradition photomasks, the plasmonic metamasks would generate structured light with spatially variant patterns of both intensity and polarization orientations. By projecting such structured light onto photoactive thin films of azo-dyes, orientation patterns can be imprinted in the azo-dyes and then transfer to the bulk of the liquid crystals. A particular aspect of this talk will be new metamask designs for both i-line and g-line photo exposures with high optical transmissions.